Mr. Chamberlain on Thursday week invited the Select Com- mittee
on War-Time Wealth to draft a Bill for a special levy, and promised that it should receive most favourable consider- ation. He warned the Committee, however, that the proposal involved " immense difficulties." The warning was emphasized by the Board of Inland Revenue in a Memorandum which Mr. Chamberlain laid before the Committee. The Board estimated the aggregate net increase of value in individual hands between June, 1914, and June, 1919, as £4,000,000,000—or almost 30 per cent. of the national wealth before the war. The Board suggested that this war-time wealth might be taxed on a graduated scale,
with exemption for individual holdings of less than £5,000, and with an allowance for " special efforts to save money in furtheranc? of the war." Assets such as furniture which had increased in value without yielding any revenue should, in the view of the Board, be exempted from the special levy. Payment might be made in a lump sum or by instalments for ten years, and in cash or securities.
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