Home rule -- Ireland; Ireland -- Politics and government
The items of Irish tax revenue in which the Treasury make _no_
adjustment are: Excise Licenses (L356,000 in 1910-11); Club Duty (L2,000
in 1910-11); "other items" (L10,000 in 1910-11); Cards and Patent
Medicines (L10,000 in 1910-11); "Estate, etc., Duties" (L1,144,000 in
1910-11); Income Tax (Schedules A and B) (L694,000 in
1910-11--abnormally large figure owing to non-collection in previous
year); Land Value Duties (L1,000 in 1910-11).
All the heads of Customs revenue are subject to adjustment, though the
total result is only a small deduction from Ireland (L126,000 in
1910-11). In all but two the adjustment is in favour of Ireland. The two
exceptions are "Foreign Spirits," where a deduction of L25,000 is made
in 1910-11, and Tobacco, where a deduction of L620,000 is made in
1910-11.
[134] _Income Tax_, Schedules C and D (dividends from Government Stocks,
public companies, foreign dividends, etc.). The Treasury estimate (as
stated in a side-note to the Return) is based on statistics of _Estate
Duty_ for the five years ending 1908. But what light can Estate Duty
throw on (for example) the dividends collected at the source from
British or foreign securities held by Irish banks? Schedule C deals with
"Government Stocks, etc.," Schedule D with "Public Companies, Foreign
Dividends, etc.," but in the adjustment for "true" revenue no
distinction is made between them. Now the Banking Statistics (Ireland)
of 1910 show that dividends were payable at the Bank of Ireland on
L38,732,000 of Government securities, and that, in addition, a debt
bearing interest was due to the Bank from the Government of 21/2 millions.
Income Tax on these items alone would be L65,000, less rebates; but the
whole of Schedule C, which includes Foreign and Colonial Government
Stocks, is given in 1909-10 as only L30,000.
No attempt is made to credit Ireland with a share of the profits made by
English and Scottish companies through business done in Ireland.
The only reliable items in Income Tax are those of A and B (Land,
Houses, and Occupation of Land), where in 1908-09 Ireland contributed
about 6 per cent. of the total; under other heads, according to the
Treasury, only 3.5 per cent. The writer estimates the true contribution
as several hundred thousand pounds more.
_Post Office_.--The Treasury give no clue as to how they calculate the
profit and loss on Postal Services. Figures of letters, telegrams,
parcels, etc., delivered in Ireland are known from the
Postmaster-General's report, but the report does not distinguish Irish
from English postal orders, of which 1211/2 millions were issued in the
United Kingdom in 1909-10. There is good reason to believe that a part
of the postal profit now wholly credited to England should in reality be
credited to Ireland.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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