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supplies.
The Colony itself derived no direct benefit from
that taxation.
3. In order to meet local peculiarities there was
introduced by the Inland Revenue Ordinance, 1947 a system of
taxation divided into four separate taxes charged wherever
possible on the earning unit rather than on the individual,
instead of a normal Income Tax, which is a single tax on the
total income of every liable individual. This division is
into Property Tax, Salaries and Annuities Tax, Profits Tax (with its sub-divisions of Corporation Profits Tax and Business Profits Tax) and Interest Tax. It is of interest to recall
that in the early stages of direct taxation in the United
Kingdom in the early part of the nineteenth century, separate taxes of a nature very similar to these were imposed on incomes,
It was not until much later that the separate taxes in the
United Kingdom were merged into a single "Income Tax". The
Inland Revenue Ordinance, however, provides a compromise
whereby a single tax similar to a normal Income Tax is imposed
where the taxpayer so desires. This is provided by a distinctive
feature in the nature of optional personal assessment under
which the separate incomes subject to one or more of these
various separate taxes may be aggregated and assessed as one.
An individual so electing to Personal Assessment acquires the
right to various personal allowances and is given due credit
for any tax already suffered, by deduction or otherwise, under
the various separate assessments.
4. The standard rate of tax for 1947/48 was fixed at
ten per cent, but this rate was not necessarily applied without
modification. Property Tax, for instances, was chargeable at
one-half the standard rate only, on the net rateable value after
the deduction of an allowances for repairs and outgoings. This
relief was to continue whilst rent restriction remained in
force in the Colony. Salaries and Annuities Tax was chargeable
on a graduated scale, ranging from one-quarter of the standard
rate to twice the standard rate, on the chargeable income of