'The new Income'. Tax Assessments under Schedule A, and for
Inhabited House Duty all over the country (except in the London County Council area), are causing surprise and distress. It is thirteen years since there was a revaluation, and so it happens that a very large number -of . people are affected. Schedule A relates chiefly- to owners of houses, and many who have bought their houses in . recent years never allowed the thought of an increased tax to enter their minds. The Income 'Tax assessments used roughly to follow the assessments made for the rates,: hut the Inland -Revenue officials.have now devised -methods of their own. The chief complaint is that the taxpayer has-no right to- inspect the details on which, the assessment is made. As Sir Trustram. Eve has pointed out,, all the taxpayer -knows is that the assessment is based on an estimated "annual value," though this annual value does not always bear any relation to, the rent paid by tenants occupying neighbouring and similar houses. , The .taxpayer .can, of course, appeal—he has three weeks in which to do so—but it is -not easy for him if he is quite in the dark, about the principle on which he has been assessed. The increase of tax seems to vary between 40 and 100%. It looks as though in many cases the increase must be based upon the present inflation of values.
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