PART V.

REVENUE AND TAXATION.*

CHAPTER I.

COMMISSIONERS OF SUPPLY AND LAND TAX.

In the periodical supply acts of the Scottish parliament, commissioners were appointed for "ordering and uplifting" the supply, according to the proportions of the respective shires arranged by the acts. These commissioners had power to inquire into the value of, and to rate all descriptions of landed property, and to appoint clerks and collectors.

The tax imposed on heritable property continuing unvaried for a long period of time, while other taxes have been increasing, has become of very insignificant comparative amount. By the Union it was limited to £48,000 (deducting all expenses), when the English land-tax should amount to a sum little short of two millions.2 In 1797 it was limited to £47,954, 1s. 2d., and made perpetual, but liable to be redeemed by the proprietor for stock in the three per cents., equal in annual value to one-tenth more than the tax.3 This tax being apportioned to the counties by act of parliament, the division among the various heritors is the proper duty of the commissioners of supply, and they levy the tax according to the proportions by the valued rents, "as ascertained by the rules fixed by the convention of 1667."4 Provision is made by a late act for a remedy where lands are taxed in more than one locality, owing to doubts as to the place to which they properly belong."

*N. B. The game-laws will be found in Part VI.-1 1689, c. 32; 1698, c. 1; 1704, c. 4, &c.-2 5 Anne, c. 8, art. 9.-3 38 Geo. III. c. 5, $136. Ibid. c. 60, § 9.-4 Thomson's Scottish Acts, vii. 545. Hutch. J. P. i. 346. -51 & 2 Vict. c. 58.

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Splittings. When a freehold estate is divided, the commissioners have to split," or divide the valued rent for the purpose of apportioning the taxation, a process which was formerly in extensive use when superiorities were partitioned for election purposes.1

How appointed. The commissioners for the respective counties are appointed by acts of parliament passed from time to time. The latest are 7 & 8 Geo. IV. c. 75, 2 & 3 Wm. IV. c. 127, 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 95, 6 & 7 Wm. IV. c. 80, and 1 & 2 Vict. c. 57. The persons so appointed are only to act if qualified. The qualification is an estate of £100 valued rent, and both superior and vassal may be qualified from the same estate. Magistrates of royal burghs, and apparent heirs, of freeholders entitled to vote on their freeholds for members of parliament, do not require a farther qualification. The penalty for acting without qualification is £20.2 Acting justices of peace, possessing the requisite qualification, are entitled to be commissioners of supply.3 Sheriffs and sheriffs-substitute may be commissioners without qualification.4

Officers. The commissioners had the appointment of the collectors of the land-tax, which is now vested in the treasury (see next Chapter), but the commissioners are still authorized to appoint general collectors of local taxes in their respective districts. They may name a convener; and where this is omitted, the sheriff, on application to the Court of Session, will be authorized to call any necessary meeting, or any private commissioner may call a meeting.6

The commissioners of supply have certain special powers by the militia act.7 They act in the local management of the assessed taxes and of the income tax,* and they have certain functions regarding roads and bridges, to be elsewhere examined.

Burghs. One sixth part of the whole land-tax is laid on the burghs. It is proportioned on them by the convention of royal burghs, and is allocated among the inhabitants according to their means and estates, by stentmasters appointed by the magistrates and councils.8

By the parliamentary reform act, all the powers and duties of any meetings of freeholders are vested in commissioners

1 Wight on Elections, p. 184, &c.-2 Bankt. iv. 18, 1. Connel on Elections, 114. Bell's Law Dict.-37 & 8 Geo. IV. c. 75, § 2.— Ibid. § 4.5 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 13, § 4. 6 & 7 Wm. IV. c. 65, § 10.-6 Connel on Elections, 120.7 42 Geo. III. c. 91. See the two following Chapters. - Bankt. iv. 18, 5. B. P. 11-26. 38 Geo. III. c. 5, § 128.

of supply,1 particularly the duty of assessing, collecting, and managing the rogue-money,2 which is an annual tax imposed on each county for defraying the expense of apprehending criminals, and subsisting them till trial.3 (See below, p. 185.)

CHAPTER II.

ASSESSED TAXES.

Management.-THE assessed taxes are now under the general superintendence of the united "commissioners of stamps and taxes." 4 The local superintendence of the assessment is vested in the commissioners of supply. (See previous Chapter.) The choice of collectors of assessed taxes, as well as of the land-tax, was formerly in these commissioners, but it has lately been transferred to the treasury.5 The persons appointed are responsible to the treasury and the board of stamps and taxes, and no responsibility is incurred by counties or burghs for their failure or default. At their annual meetings, the commissioners of supply may appoint what they may conceive a sufficient number of assessors for the several parishes and burghs, and if they do not make such appointment, or those nominated refuse to act, the duty of assessing falls on the surveyors.7

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Appeal. The commissioners of supply hear all appeals against assessments. The proper form of appeal is by lodging with the collector, and the surveyor or inspector, within fifteen days after the notice of assessment, a note of the intention to appeal, with the ground of complaint. A list, fixed on the church-door, is held as sufficient notice of assessment. The appeal falls, if not insisted on at the next half-yearly meeting for discussion of appeals.10 The clerk of the commissioners must give notice to the collectors and surveyors of the times when appeals are to be heard, and they in their turn give notice to the respective assessors or surveyors, so that the parties appealing may have all necessary knowledge by personal application to them.11

1 2 & 3 Wm. IV. c. 65, § 45.-2 Ibid. § 44.-3 11 Geo. I. c. 26, § 12.4 4 & 5 Wm. IV. c. 60, § 8.-5 5 & 6 Wm. IV. c. 64, § 10.- Ibid. 6 & 7 Wm. IV. c. 65, § 12.-7 43 Geo. III. c. 150, § 8. 45 Geo. III. c. 95, § 1.843 Geo. III. c. 150, § 20.-9 45 Geo. III. c. 95, § 2.-10 43 Geo. III. c. 150, § 22.- Ibid. § 24.

Enforcement. On non-payment of duties, warrants may be obtained from any two commissioners, or the sheriff, or the convener of the county, authorizing the goods of the defaulter to be distrained to meet the duties and treble the value. On poinding, the goods are valued by two sworn appraisers, and the owner may redeem them on payment of the appraised value within four days. Where sufficient property is not found, the party may be imprisoned till payment.1

Assessment. The general objects of assessment are, windows, male-servants, carriages, horses, dogs, horsedealers, hair-powder, armorial bearings, and game-licenses.2 With reference to the window-duties, houses unoccupied at the time of making the assessment, are so marked in the return, and when persons entering on the occupancy give notice to the surveyor or inspector within twenty days, they are only liable to be assessed for the period from the end of the previous quarter; but if they do not, they are liable to a penalty of £5, and assessment for the whole year. When a house becomes unoccupied within the year, the whole year's duty is chargeable, unless notice be given, in which case, there is exemption for each quarter during which there has been no occupancy.3 In decisions under this enactment, any furniture left in the house has generally been considered occupancy. Scientific and literary societies, when they are purely of that character, without affording pecuniary profit to shareholders, and are certified to be so by the registrar for certifying and registering the rules of friendly societies, are exempt from assessed taxes.5

The year for the purposes of assessment is held to commence and terminate on the 24th May. Within twentyone days after the duties become current, notices are posted on the church-doors, directing individuals to furnish lists of all articles (windows and game-duty excepted), on account of which they are liable to be assessed; and besides this general notice, the assessors or surveyors must deliver to each householder a special notice to furnish such list within twenty-one days from the date of the notice. If the party neglect to lodge the list, the assessor or surveyor is to make

143 Geo. III. c. 150, § 30.-2 48 Geo. III. c. 55. 52 Geo. III. c. 93, Sch. A, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, K, L. 4 & 5 Wm. IV. c. 19. 2 & 3 Vict. c. 35. 6 & 7 Vict. c. 24. The duties on stage carriages are regulated by 2 & 3 Vict. c. 66.-3 43 Geo. III. c. 161, § 15. 6 Geo. IV. c. 7, § 2.4 Irving on the Law of Assessed Taxes, 107.5 6 & 7 Vict. c. 36.6 43 Geo. III. c. 161, § 24. 52 Geo. III. c. 93, § 5.-7 43 Geo. III. c. 161, § 25.- Ibid. § 26. 52 Geo. III. c. 93, § 5.

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an assessment, which will be final and without appeal, unless on the ground of the party having been absent from home when he should have returned it. Persons omitting to send lists, or sending false lists, forfeit £50.2 There is an alternative, however, generally adopted, of rectifying the assessment by a surcharge to the amount of double the duty on any omission.3 The doubling of the duty may be avoided by an affidavit of the circumstances under which the omission took place, to the satisfaction of the surveyor or inspector.4

CHAPTER III.

INCOME TAX.

SECT. 1.-General Nature.

A CONSIDERABLE addition has been made to the fiscal laws by the Income Tax act, 5 & 6 Vict. c. 35, as amended by 5 & 6 Vict. c. 37, and 6 & 7 Vict. c. 24. The act was continued by 8 & 9 Vict. c. 4, for three years after 5th April 1845, and it seems likely to be for some time a fixed element in our financial system. Of an act containing 193 sections, the greater part of which has been already enforced, no general digest will here be expected. It may be observed, that the difficulty of bringing an abridgment of the clauses of the act within a small compass is materially increased from the circumstance that the old income tax acts which had expired, viz. 48 Geo. III. c. 141, and 50 Geo. III. c. 105, both in themselves statutes of considerable length, are resuscitated, and" shall severally and respectively be and become in full force and effect with respect to the duties hereby granted, and shall be severally and respectively duly observed, applied, practised, and put in execution, &c., so far as the same shall not be superseded by, and shall be consistent with the express provisions of this act, as fully and effectually, to all intents and purposes, as if the same powers, &c., were particularly repeated and re-enacted in the body of this act" (§ 3).

The management of the duties is with the commissioners of stamps and taxes, and the local operation of the act is vested

1 43 Geo. III. c. 161, § 30.-2 Ibid. § 37.-3 Ibid. §§ 38, 63.— Ibid. § 65.