66 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



defensible on grounds of convenience and expediency — but he 

 also pays double Imperial taxes on a valuation which may not 

 bear, and generally does not bear, any direct relation to the 

 actual income received. It is this aspect of the question to 

 which I desire to draw particular attention, and it is one which, 

 at the present relatively high rates of Income Tax and Super- 

 Tax, presses with extreme severity on the owners of woodlands, 

 the assessable value for Schedule B, Income Tax, having been 

 recently trebled apart from the increase in the rate. 



"To come to actual figures, I think I am taking fair average 

 figures if I state the combined owners' and occupiers' County 

 Rates at 2S. per jQ, and the combined owners' and occupiers' 

 Parish Rates at 2S. 3d. per ;^. These rates being directly levied 

 on Valuation Roll rental can be readily calculated by anyone. 

 With regard to Stipends, Heritors' Assessments, and Land Tax, 

 these are burdens usually levied on the whole of an owner's 

 lands in any parish, and, consequently, their incidence upon 

 woodland must be merely apportioned. This can be done with 

 considerable accuracy for any given case, although, owing to 

 the wide variations in these burdens, an average is not so readily 

 struck. Generally speaking, 2s. to 2s. 6d. per ^ would be a 

 moderate average, and I take the lower figure of 2s. 



"Coming now to Income Tax and Super-Tax, I take the 

 maximum rates of 5s. and 3s. 6d. respectively, because these are 

 the rates applicable to the larger estates, and it is to the larger 

 estates that we must look for the most extensive planting apart 

 from State undertakings. 



"After allowing for the deductions made on Schedule A 

 assessable values, the amount of 8s. 6d. per jQ is reduced to 

 about 6s. 3d., but as there are no deductions under Schedule B 

 the full 8s. 6d. is charged. The somewhat startling result is thus 

 obtained that on the larger estates the present charge on wood- 

 lands for Income Tax and Super-Tax is equal to 14s. gd. per j[^ 

 of Valuation Roll rental. Adding to this the other local burdens 

 I have mentioned gives a total taxation charge of 21s. per £^ of 

 valuation. In this calculation I have made no allowance for 

 Death Duties on either the timber when realised or the land 

 upon which the timber is growing. I might be asked what are 

 the remedies that occur to any one familiar with these figures." 



The Secretary for Scotland. — "I was just going to put the 

 question." 



