We need your support to keep TheyWorkForYou running and make sure people across the UK can continue to hold their elected representatives to account.
Donate to our crowdfunderMr John Simon: The figures are, for the year ended March, 1937, £483,842,726; for the year ended March, 1938, £529;634;963; and for the year ended March, 1939, £584,854,033.
Mr John Simon: Yes, the hon. Member may be assured that we may be able to carry on the story for a few more years.
Mr John Simon: I think that the figures of actual subscriptions to Savings Certificates are of general interest, and I should not like to discontinue publication in their present form. Information as to the principal of certificates paid off is, of course, available with weekly Exchequer Accounts: these latter figures are of very much smaller order.
Mr John Simon: Such figures are not, I think, so immediately available. I dare say that the hon. Member will remember that in my Budget speech I was careful to make clear by how much receipts during the year as a whole exceeded repayments.
Mr John Simon: No, Sir. Income Tax paid by a company in respect of directors' or employés'remuneration is regarded for Income Tax purposes as additional remuneration of the director or employé and is assessed as such. In effect, therefore, the tax is paid out of the director's or employé's income for Income Tax purposes and unless the personal allowances to which the director or employé is entitled have...
Mr John Simon: Profits made by a co-operative factory are, like the profits of any other manufacturer, chargeable to Income Tax whether arising from sales to the Government or from sales to any other person.
Mr John Simon: Conditions in the United States and in this country are of course by no means the same, but the matter will be examined when documents are available. The opinions in question were, I gather, expressed by the Federal Advisory Council, not by the Federal Reserve Board.
Mr John Simon: For Treasury Bills issued from 1st September, 1939, to 4th May, 1940, as a result of public tender the average rate was £1 9s. 6d. and the total amount of interest paid was £7,225,957. For the period from 1st September, 1938, to 4th May, 1939, the corresponding figures were 15s. 10d. and £2,359,224.
Mr John Simon: The position alluded to by the hon. Member and that referred to in the Question are not, of course, the same.
Mr John Simon: No, Sir; an issue of bonus shares will not count as dividend distribution in respect of the standard year for the purpose of determining the permissible dividend during the war, nor will bonus shares issued after the standard year reckon as an increase of capital for that purpose. Bonus shares issued before the standard year expired will, of course, count as capital.
Mr John Simon: In order to make the proposed limitation of dividends fully effective, it will be necessary to ensure that new issues of capital to existing shareholders are made on terms which do not conflict with the principle of prohibition of bonus share issues. The control of the Treasury over new capital issues affords the necessary safeguard.
Mr John Simon: Yes, Sir. I shall try to exercise it fairly.
Mr John Simon: The considerations to be weighed in deciding what new taxes should be proposed are numerous and cannot be adequately set out in answer to a Parliamentary Question. Amongst them are the problems of yield, definition, exceptions and administration. I can hardly argue each case at Question Time, but I would refer my hon. Friend to a passage in my Budget speech which refers to the subject.
Mr John Simon: Such questions as this often come up for consideration at the Treasury, and these are far from being the only suggestions made. I think that some regard should be paid to the very close and impartial consideration which has been given to a great many suggestions.
Mr John Simon: I am not aware that any local authority has, for the reason stated, been unable to repay debt due for repayment, and I could not agree with the condition which my hon. Friend suggests should be attached to all future borrowings by local authorities. I would remind him that a Select Committee of this House reported in 1909 that the principle of utilising sinking funds for purposes for which...
Mr John Simon: I would refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave on 2nd May to the hon. Member for Jarrow (Miss Wilkinson).
Mr John Simon: My hon. Friend is aware that the Bill will contain provision for the consideration of cases involving exceptional circumstances and I think that cases of the type referred to by my hon. Friend will best be dealt with, in the light of all the facts, under that machinery.
Mr John Simon: The position of these companies is under consideration at the present time.
Mr John Simon: I would refer my hon. Friend to the statement which I made yesterday in the Debate on the Tobacco duties. I regret that it would not be practicable to make special concessions to troops stationed in particular parts of the United Kingdom.
Mr John Simon: One could not draw a distinction between one portion of the United Kingdom and another.