by the following Introduction. A marginal reference to the sections of the Act accompanies each paragraph. This plan has been adopted with a view of rendering it easy for the reader to refer to the particular enactments which have been considered to afford authority for each proposition, and to enable him to satisfy his own mind whether the conclusions of the writer have been correctly drawn. If even this alone has been effectively accomplished, with regard to an Act so long and complicated as the one under consideration, the writer will not consider his time misemployed, or his labour thrown away. 3, MIDDLE TEMPLE LANE, June, 1842. J. P. The following Table is inserted to facilitate reference from THE INCOME TAX ACT. 5 & 6 VICT. c. 35. INTRODUCTION. THE object of the INCOME TAX ACT is to levy upon income arising from all sources, with some few exceptions, a tax, in the proportion of sevenpence in the pound. It is to be observed, that this tax is imposed upon the income derived, not upon the source yielding such income. It is regulated in amount by the quantum of the increment during the given period, irrespective of the increasing or diminishing value of the sources from which it springs. The building land which yields an income of £100 a-year, whilst in the same period it increases in value by many times that sum, contributes no more to the impost than the stone quarry yielding a like sum, and which, in a few years, may be exhausted and valueless. As this principle affects several of the provisions of the Act, it is important that it should be kept in mind throughout. For the purpose of assessing and levying this impost, hearing and adjudicating upon appeals, and carrying into effect the provisions of the Act, powers are conferred upon § 4. certain Commissioners, who may be divided into the following classes: 1st. Commissioners for General Purposes. 3d. Commissioners for Special Purposes. 4th. Parties who are appointed to be Commissioners for executing the Act with regard to the duties arising from particular sources. The first class, the COMMISSIONERS FOR GENERAL PURPOSES, are to be appointed in the following manner: The Commissioners of the Land Tax are to assemble in their respective districts, at such time and place as shall be appointed by the Commissioners of Stamps and Taxes, by advertisement in the Gazette, and at such meeting to select from their own body a number of qualified (a) persons to act as Commissioners for General Purposes in their respective districts, which districts are to be the same as those which at present exist for the assessed taxes. The names of the persons so selected having been set down in a list, in such order as the Land Tax Commissioners shall think fit, the persons whose names stand first in order in such list, to a number not exceeding seven, and not less than three, are to constitute the Commissioners for General Purposes in the district for which they are so selected; and a number not greater than seven, and not less than three, of those next in order, are to form a body from which vacancies in the number of such Commissioners may be supplied. If a sufficient number of persons to form these lists cannot be obtained from amongst the Land Tax (a) As to the qualification, see sections 10 to 17 respectively. |