How EVASION IS' EFFECTED.
I have already said that the Inland Revenue Authori- ties have some ground for assuming that attempts are occasionally made by some Super Tax payers to escape from -the .full demands of the E-xchequer. There are means well known on the.Stock Exchange by which it is often possible for those holding large 'amounts of Govern- ment Stocks to sell on the night before they are quoted " ex "-dividend on the Stock Exchange, and to buy back next morning " ex "-dividend. The half-yearly interest is sacrificed, but it is generally recovered in the lower price paid for the stock " ex " the dividend, and the Exchequer is the loser by the operation. Not, of course, that the Exchequer always loses the Income Tax altogether, though should the sale happen to have been made to some foreign institution it is even possible that there may be a total loss. But in any case the stock would probably have been sold to other than Super Tax payers, and con- sequently, instead of 6s. or more in the £, the Government will get only 4s. or less. There are other ways too in which by selling War Loan and purchasing an equivalent amount of bonds which have conversion rights into War Loan, Super Tax payments are evaded, while I have even heard of quite profitable transactions of this character being based in the first place upon borrowed money. It is no part, however, of this article to indicate to the uninitiated plans for evading taxation, and I have only referred to the matter in passing by way of recognizing that the Inland Revenue Authorities have undoubtedly grounds of complaint. In another direction, too, namely by what are known as " one-man " companies, effortg arc often made to evade Super Tax and Death Duties.
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