ORIGINS OF INCOME TAX IN GREAT BRITAIN. Six Parliamentary Acts on Income Tax (1798-1842).

TAXATION & DUTIES. Great Britain. Parliament.

Verlag: London: George Eyre and Andrew Strahan, 1798

Duties on Income: A collection of six Parliamentary Acts on Income Tax (1798, 1799, 1800, 1803, and 1842), being the ancestral legislation of todays taxation system in Great Britain. Folio first editions. Neatly extracted from bound volumes. SEE IMAGE for details on all six Acts. In 1798, Prime Minister William Pitt the younger introduced a new method of taxation to aid in the cost of the ongoing war with France. The terms of the new method were outlined that year by an Act (see Item 1) that imposed duties of assessed taxes, regulated by the amount of income which the person charged with assessed taxes possessed, provided that such person possessed an income of £60 a year or upwards. By an Act of 1799 (see Item 2), the duties granted by the 1798 Act were repealed, and a new duty was imposed upon incomes at the rate of 10 per cent. All persons were required to make returns of the whole of their income from whatsoever source the same was derived, exemption being granted to those whose incomes were under £60 a year, and reduced rates charged on incomes between that amount and £200 a year. Two months later, a supplementary Act (see Item 3) provided an extension for returning statements and included additional information related to taxation parameters. Income tax was very unpopular and was widely evaded, particularly among manufacturers and merchants. It was thought to be too intrusive into private financial circumstances. An Act of 1800 (see Item 4) focussed specifically on ascertaining and collecting the duties on income that were owing. But in time, the tax came to be accepted as a vital price for winning the war against Napoleon, and many regarded paying the tax as a patriotic duty. Income tax, as instituted by Pitt, was collected from 1799 until 1802 when it was abolished by Prime Minister Henry Addington during the Peace of Amiens. Income tax was reinstated by Addington in 1803 when hostilities recommenced. A system of charging incomes upon all property and profit at their first source was introduced, and the return of the whole income, previously required, was abandoned. By the Act passed in 1803 for this purpose (see Item 5) the various descriptions of income chargeable with duty were segregated into five categories. A poundage rate, varying from 3d to 11d in the pound, was imposed upon all incomes between £60 and £150 a year, and 5 per cent upon all incomes amounting to or exceeding the latter sum. Exemption was confined to incomes of less than £60 a year. Deductions were allowed as before, with the exception of interest on money borrowed, which was rendered unnecessary by the introduction of the principle of taxing income at its source. The system of income tax was again abolished in 1816 following the Battle of Waterloo, but then reinstated in 1842 (see Item 6). Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 211

Bibliografische Details

Titel: ORIGINS OF INCOME TAX IN GREAT BRITAIN. Six ...
Verlag: London: George Eyre and Andrew Strahan
Erscheinungsdatum: 1798
Einband: Soft cover
Zustand: Very Good
Auflage: 1st Edition