Considerable interest has been taken by City circles in the
suggestion recently put forward by Mr. Herbert Gibbs in the Times, and supported in last week's Spectator, to the effect that the time has come for an exhaustive inquiry into the whole nature of the incidence of our taxation. In some quarters the point is made (suggested, no doubt, by the innumerable Commissions and Committees incidental to the late Government) that the matter was sufficiently dealt with by the Royal Commission on Income-tax which sat recently. It is generally admitted that the Commission performed useful service, and, in some respects, the system of Income-tax levy has been slightly simplified. The work of that Commission, however, was limited to an examination of the Income- tax itself, whereas the City understands Mr. Gibbs's proposal to relate to the question of taxation as a whole, and, consequently, the feeling in financial circles is very strongly in favour of his suggestion. It is felt that anything which will take questions of taxation out of the regions of mere party and class strife, and examine them solely from the scientific standpoint and also from the standpoint of national welfare, would, in itself, be of infinite benefit.
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