DETAILS OF CHANGES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 123, 26 May 1937, Page 11

DETAILS OF CHANGES

THE NEW BASIS 35,000 CONCERNS LIABLE (British Official Wlreless.l RUGBY, May 24. The Finance Bill, the text of which was issued this evening, has aroused unusual interest from the fact that it embodies changes in the Budget proposals for a national defence co'ntribu-' tiori foreshadowed by- the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Neville Chamberlain) in the House of Commons before the Whitsuri recess, and resulting from consultations he has had in the interval with representatives of industry, commerce, and finance. One c/ the principal variations from the original outline of the proposal is a provision ■ enabling the taxpayer to include profits of the calendar year 1936 in determining by the three-year average the standard of profits. It is made clear in connection, with the computation of the alternative capital standard that the basis is the actual cost of assets, less proper deduction for wear and tear, and where assets have been written down the original cost and not the written-down value , will be taken. GRADUATION MODIFIED. The graduation of the tax has been modified. A tax at the rate of one-fifth will be applicable to profits in the zone of 6 per cent, to 12 per cent, of capital instead of 6 per cent, to 10 per cent., and the: one-quarter rate will be applied to the zone of the 12 per cent, to 16 per cent., instead of the zone of 10 per cent, to 15 per cent. . ' The Bill contains provisions under which any class or subdivision of trade or business may apply for an increase of the statutory percentage allowed on capital, on the grounds of the exceptional risks incurred, or of any exceptional wastage of, or exceptional deferment of yield on, capital employed therein. Mr. Chamberlain,^ answering a question in the House of Commons, said he estimated the number of concerns liable to pay the national defence contribution at approximately 35,000.