28 JUNE 1919, Page 13

INCOME TAX ON NON-RESIDENTS.

[To THE EDITOU OF THE " SPECTATOR.") SIR , —The law by which Englishmen resident in India and the Colonies cannot claim relief from British Income Tax Is not, in view of Sections 26 and 48 of the Income Tax Act of 1918, so great an anomaly as would appear from a casual perusal of the letter of " L. H. J. P." in your issue of May 17th. Section 26 provides that non-residents, who are or who have been in the service of the Crown, or who are employed in the service of any Missionary Society or of any native State under the protectorate of the British Crown and various others, shall be entitled to any exemption, abatement, or relief to which they would have been entitled had they been resident in the United Kingdom. The provision also applies to persons resident abroad for the sake of health. By the authority of Section 46, the Treasury have recently issued several Govern- ment securities (War Loans, &c.). the interest from which is exempt from British Income Tax to persons not ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom. Moreover, it must be admitted that the Government is not unjust in framing laws which discourage the taking of money out of the United Kingdom, as such a policy carried to extremes would ffestroy the balance of imports and exports, and would disastrously affect the rate of exchange in foreign countries.—! am, Sir, &c...

The Croft, Sneyd Green, Staffs. W. C. Coxox.