PUBLIC BURDENS 105 



they might have to bring into account the 

 receipts from the sale of timber during the two 

 years immediately preceding the year when 

 replanting was begun and in which they first 

 came under Schedule D. 



A correspondence between the Central Land 

 Association and the Inland Revenue on this 

 point has been published in the Journal of 

 Forestry, April 1917, Vol. xi., No. 2, at p. 135. 

 It appears that in the opinion of the Board of 

 Inland Revenue, when an occupier of woodlands 

 elects for assessment to Income Tax Schedule D 

 — as for a separate estate — ^under the provisions 

 of § 38 (2) of the Finance Act, 1916, the 

 computation of the profit or loss falls to be 

 made as in the case of a business newly set up,, 

 no regard being had to the profits or losses 

 arising from the land in question prior to the 

 date of the replanting. It is difficult, if not 

 impossible, to assess fairly for the purposes of 

 annual taxation property which has no annual 

 income, but produces a fund composed partly 

 of income and partly of capital at widely 

 separated periods, and when in the interval be- 

 tween these periods there are annual outgoings. 



The Finance Act, 1916, recognises the fact 

 that timber-growing necessarily involves no 



