Seligman on Income Tax

A copy of ERA Seligman's The income tax : a study of the history, theory and practice of income taxation at home and abroad is available here at the time of writing.

The wartime origins of Irish corporation tax

A short paper that I wrote for the Irish Society of Comparative Law conference in 2012 has just been published here in the Irish Journal of Legal Studies.  It examines the UK corporation tax of 1920 and asks why it was retained in the Irish Free State even after its abolition in the reduced UK.  This is all the more surprising given that the views of UK politicians that

“[e]veryone admits it is not a good tax ... many think that it bears exceptionally heavily on enterprise and industry” (Baldwin)

“[i]t was unloved by its parents, it was reviled by its subsequent guardians, it was condemned by every party, not least by the Labour Party” (Snowden)

were widely shared in Ireland.  The article reaches surprising conclusions rooted in economic nationalism and notes the irony in Ireland being widely criticised for its excessive corporation tax rates of c.5%.

As a footnote, Ernest Blythe seems to have been an interesting character, and was known to my grandmother.

RN Carter, Advanced Accounts

Accounting textbook from 1915 available online here: RN Carter (ed), Advanced Accounts: A Manual of Advanced Book-keeping and Accountancy for Accountants, Book-keepers and Business Men (New York: EP Dutton, 1915)

Cambridge history conference 2012

The draft papers from the Cambridge Centre for Tax Law history conference can be found here.

British Budgets vol. 1 (1877-1913)

The first volume of the invaluable British Budgets series, by Bernard Mallett, is here and covers the years 1877-8 to 1912-3.

"Intolerable Inquisition"

The Hamlyn Lectures website at the University of Exeter includes a link to the invaluable Intolerable Inquisition by Hubert Monroe.

Liberal Party audio recordings

Audio recordings of Asquith, Lloyd George, Churchill and Gladstone, including discussion of the People's Budget of 1909.

Stafford Northcote (1842-61 budgets)

Stafford H. Northcote, Twenty years of financial policy: a summary of the chief financial measures passed between 1842 and 1861, with a table of budgets.

Essentially the first in the British Budgets series, written by a future Chancellor of the Exchequer.  Some interesting and balanced comments about the Irish crisis from a financial perspective.

PD Leake on capital allowances

One of the seminal books on UK capital allowances: PD Leake, Depreciation and wasting assets and their treatment in computing annual profit and loss (London: Isaac Pitman, 1920).  The preface and introduction are particularly interesting.

Income Tax Acts (1799-1952)

The older UK Income Tax Acts are not that easy to find online, but these links work as at the date of posting.  No joy on 1918 yet.

Income Tax Act 1799
Income Tax Act 1803 (at p. 1012)
Income Tax Act 1842
Income Tax Act 1952