EXCISE LICENCES.-CLASS E.-DOG LICENCES. LOCAL TAXATION ACCOUNTS. The Local Government (England and Wales) Act, 1888, and the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1889, directed that the proceeds of certain Excise Licence duties, described as local taxation licence duties, and enumerated therein, should be paid into the Local Taxation Accounts for England and Scotland. The Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898, directed that the Local Taxation (Ireland) Account should receive from the Consolidated Fund in each year an amount equal to the proceeds in the financial year preceding of similar Excise Licence duties so far as leviable in Ireland. The Customs and Inland Revenue Act, 1890, directed that such portion of the existing duty on beer as amounted to 3d. per barrel, and an additional duty of 6d. per gallon on spirits, were to be paid by the Revenue Departments into the Local Taxation Accounts for England (80 per cent.), Scotland (11 per cent.), and Ireland (9 per cent.). Section 17 of the Finance Act, 1907, however, directed that, from 1907-8 onwards, the proceeds of all these duties on beer, spirits, and Excise licences should be paid into the Exchequer instead of into the Local Taxation Accounts, and that an equivalent amount should be issued to those Accounts out of the Consolidated Fund. Under Section 6 of the Finance Act, 1908, the power to levy the duties on the following local taxation licences in England and Wales, namely, duties on licences to deal in game, licences for dogs, killing game, guns, carriages, armorial bearings, and male servants, was transferred, as from 1st January, 1909, to the County and County Borough Councils. Payments out of the Consolidated Fund to the Local Taxation Account in respect of such licences thereupon ceased, except as regards an annual sum of £40,000, which was to be distributed among the Councils in proportion to the amount levied by each Council during the preceding year. The Finance (1909-10) Act, 1910, made considerable alterations in the scale of duties on licences for the sale of intoxicating liquor, and in motor car licence duties. These remained local taxation duties, but in order to secure for Imperial revenue the increased yield of the new duties, it was provided that the amount to be paid out of the Consolidated Fund to the local taxation accounts in respect of the duties on licences for the sale of intoxicating liquors should be equal to the proceeds of the corresponding duties in the year 1908-9; and the Revenue Act, 1911, made similar provision respecting the duties on carriage licences (including motor car licences) in Scotland. Carriage licence duties (including motor car duties) were still to be levied in England and Wales by the County and County Borough Councils, but the surplus (if any) of the receipts in any year over the yield in the standard year, 1908-9, was made payable to the Exchequer, while any deficit was to be made good to the local councils out of the Consolidated Fund (see Section 88 of the Finance (1909-10) Act, 1910, as amended by Section 18 of the Revenue Act, 1911). In Ireland, licence duties on motor cars were imposed for the first time by the Finance (1909-10) Act, 1910. They were to be levied by the County Councils, but the proceeds were to be paid into the Exchequer. Each Council was to receive annually out of the Consolidated Fund a sum equal to 5 per cent. of the amount levied by the Council during the preceding year (Section 89 (2) of the Act). Apart from these duties, there were no carriage licence duties in Ireland. Section 17 of the Revenue Act, 1911, fixed the share of the beer and spirit duties payable to the local taxation accounts, in respect of 1909-10 and later years, at an amount equal to that paid for 1908-9. From 1910 to 1915 the net proceeds (i.e., the receipts less the cost of collection) of the Carriage (including motor car) licence duties, after deducting, in the case of England and Wales and Scotland, amounts equal to the proceeds of the duties in 1908-9, were dealt with under Section 90 of the Finance (1909-10) Act, 1910, as amended by Section 18 of the Revenue Act, 1911, which prescribed that a sum equal to those net proceeds should be charged on the Consolidated Fund and applied, as part of the road improvement grant, in the manner provided by the Development and Road Improvement Funds Act, 1909. Section 49 of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 1915, suspended the grant, but it was revived as from 1st April, 1920, by Section 62 of the Finance Act, 1920. The Finance Act, 1920 (Section 13) and the Roads Act, 1920, made further changes in regard to the Carriage and Motor Car licence duties, which took effect on 1st January, 1921. The former enactment imposed new scales of licence duty on mechanically propelled vehicles, and the latter directed that all licence duties on road vehicles, should be levied throughout the United Kingdom by County Councils, subject to the general direction of the Minister of Transport, and paid into the Exchequer, and further that a sum equal to the proceeds of the duties should be issued out of the Consolidated Fund and applied (1) to the payment to the local taxation accounts of the amount formerly retained by the Councils in England and Wales and the amount formerly paid into the Local Taxation (Scotland) Account in respect of the proceeds of the Carriage licence duties in 1908-9, and (2) to the payment of the balance to the Road Fund established under the Act. The road improvement grant was merged in the Road Fund, and the latter fund was to bear the expenses incurred by Councils in levying these duties. The annual grant to the Councils in England and Wales for levying the duties other than those on licences for road vehicles was by section 62 of the Finance Act, 1921, fixed at £60,000 as from 1st April, 1921, in lieu of the £40,000 allowed to them under the Act of 1908 for levying the whole of the duties. Payments to the Local Taxation Account, Ireland, ceased in respect of Northern Ireland under Section 21 (2) of the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, as from the 22nd November, 1921. Payments in respect of the Irish Free State area ceased as from 1st April, 1922, consequent upon the establishment of the Free State (Irish Free State Agreement Act, 1922, and the Provisional Government (Transfer of Functions) Order, 1922, made thereunder). No payments are now made to any Irish Local Taxation Account out of the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom. |