THE LAND CLAUSES OF THE BUDGET.
[To Tee EDITOR or TRII " SPECTATOR."J
SIR,—Although the Finance Bill has been under discussion for some weeks, it must be appiu•ent that, whatever may be said in favour of an Increment-tax (Imperial or local) on non- rural land in particular circumstances, no arguments have been adduced by the Government for any such tax on agricul- tural land. Mr. Asquith is reported as saying in the debate on May 5th with reference to the proposed Increment of Land Value Duty : "The owner of land, and particularly urban land, acquires for his property an enhanced value not due to any effort or to any expenditure of his own," &o. And again : "In the case of land, and particularly urban land, you are dealing with a thing which is normal, regular, and progressive." Again, on June 10th he is reported as saying : " As regards much of the land, there is a steady and continuous enhance- ment of its capital value," &a. In the face of these assertions, it is fair to ask for an explanation of the figures on p. 162 of the Fifty-first Report of the Inland Revenue Commissioners for March, 1908, for the gross profits relating to Schedule A of the Income-tax, as extract from which—the full table showing a steady decrease for lands and a steady increase for houses yearly for ten years—is as follows:—
Other Year. Lands. Houses. Property. Total.
£
1897.98 5.9,937,147 101,881,187 ... 639,075 218,457,409 19007 52,053,135 ... 210,869,907 1,291,502 ... 203,741,544
Assuming that profits are an indication of capital value, and that the value of urban land has on the whole increased, there can only have been a simultaneous decrease in the value of agricultural land much more marked than indicated by the figtires under " Lands" above. There is thus no occasion for a valuation of agricultural land for Increment of Value Duty. With regard to the Undeveloped Land Tax, as Mr. Asquith is reported in the debate on Juno 10th to have said—" All land ought to be taxed at its proper value. Agricultural land is so taxed," there is no justification whatever in the ease of either duty for any detailed valuation of agricultural land.
Previous page
