Non-statutory responses by the Inland Revenue department with special reference to the Chief Inspector of Taxes branch and income tax

The thesis reviews the Inland Revenue Department from the 1849 Statute of creation, and the exercise of its statutory function to collect and manage inland revenues. It is shown that this management stems from the authority of the 1816 Consolidated Fund Act, which created a 'Lord High Treasurer of Great Britain', held, as an office, by Commissioners of H.M. Treasury. In 1995 they are the First Lord of the Treasury and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. With other Treasury Ministers a Treasury Board exists, which does not meet. It is a transient political hydra. The 1816 and 1849 Acts do not provide for complements of Commissioners, requirements to meet, record, or to report to Parliament.

It is for Parliament to make laws, and the function of the courts to construe and interpret that legislation, and to tell the nation what those laws mean.

In 1993 a Deputy Chairman of the Board of Inland Revenue commented on the Revenue's 'sound foundations', but House of Commons Debates, Papers, Select Committees and Commissions reveal a department in continuous turmoil and inconsistency, without a sound legislative base, and the Treasury acquiescing to non-statutory practices. These weaknesses are shown to stem from Acts of 1799 to 1806, as reprinted in 1842. That provision, for assessing and collecting taxes, stemmed from the eighteenth century. Locally appointed officers were paid by percentage commissions, which lasted into the twentieth century, over whom successive Chancellors disclaimed any Parliamentary powers.

No taxing Acts were reviewed until 1918. Attempts to restructure, and code legislation, with court rulings, are shown to have been frustrated by the Treasury and the Board of Inland Revenue.

University of Southampton

Booth, Desmond John

1997

Booth, Desmond John

Booth, Desmond John (1997) Non-statutory responses by the Inland Revenue department with special reference to the Chief Inspector of Taxes branch and income tax. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Record type: Thesis (Doctoral)

Abstract

It is for Parliament to make laws, and the function of the courts to construe and interpret that legislation, and to tell the nation what those laws mean.

No taxing Acts were reviewed until 1918. Attempts to restructure, and code legislation, with court rulings, are shown to have been frustrated by the Treasury and the Board of Inland Revenue.

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