AN UNNECESSARY EVIL SIR,—It was very disturbing to read the
letter by Managing Director' under this heading and my heart started to bleed for the unfor- tunate depressed class of company directors. The flow of blood so caused was quickly staunched, however, by reading the report of a civil case where a company director gave evidence to the effect that his salary was £1,000, director's fees £1,500 and his expenses allowance £2.500.
If expenses in such proportion to income are common—and 1 have good reason to believe they are—the happy recipients of such tax-free sums are enjoying a standard of living to which they could not otherwise aspire.
From my knowledge of HM Inspectors (I am not one of them) they interpret their regulations with fairness and good sense, but I feel that the whole basis of expense allowances should be re-examined with a view to adopting a more equitable system. At present if a director sends a customer a case of champagne he dots so-free of tax but if one of his suppliers is equally generous to him he does not declare it as 'income. Heads the director wins, tails the salary or wage earning taxpayer loses.—Yours faith- fully,
G. P. RUE.LEN 66 Wroxham Road, Sprowslon, Norwich
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