THE enactments in the several statutes for assessing and collecting the land tax and those in the statutes for its redemption and sale being altogether dissimilar, it has been considered desirable to preserve a separate arrangement of them throughout the work; and the present chapter will therefore be devoted to a consideration of the several provisions in the acts for assessing and collecting the land tax. These being placed before the reader in a classified form, it is next proposed to explain the remedies given to parties assessed against unequal assessments, and in the concluding chapter will be found a digested statement of the several provisions in the acts for redemption and sale of the land tax. SECT. 1. Of the Acts for assessing and collecting the Land Tax. The first statute containing explicit directions for assessing and collecting land tax in England and Wales is the B 4 Will. & Mary, c. 1, the provisions of which were for the most part embodied in acts of parliament annually passed to continue the tax till the year 1798, when the statute 38 Geo. 3, c. 5, was passed, under which the land tax has ever since been collected. By this act a sum of 1,989,6737. was directed to be raised in England and Wales, according to the several proportions at which each county, city, borough, or town was then assessed. These proportions are set forth in the second section of the act, and the commissioners appointed by it were empowered to determine what part of the sum assessed upon each county should be charged upon each hundred, lathe, wapentake, rape, or other division within England, Wales, or Berwick-uponTweed; but in settling such quota the commissioners were to be governed by the assessments made in pursuance of the statute of William & Mary (s. 7). The subjects upon which the tax is directed to be levied, and the rate at which it was to be assessed, are as follows: Ready money, debts, goods, wares, merchandize or other chattels, or personal | estate (except desperate debts, stock on land, household goods, and loans to his majesty) (a) Public offices or employments of profit (except military officers of the army or navy), salaries, gratuities, bounty money, rewards, fees, profits, perquisites or advantages, annuities, pensions, stipends or other yearly payments, either out of the receipt of the exchequer, or out of any branch of the revenue of the crown (a) After the rate of 20s. for every 1007. After the rate of 4s. in the pound per annum on the annual amount. (a) By the 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 12, the duties on personal estate are repealed; and by the 6 Geo. 4, c. 9, s. 21, it is declared that the duty on salaries, offices Manors, messuages, lands, quarries, mines, iron mills, furnaces and other iron works, salt springs and salt works, alum mines and works, parks, chaces, warrens, woods, underwood, coppices, fishings, tithes, tolls, annuities and other yearly profits, and all other hereditaments. To be assessed with as much equality and indifference as possible by a pound rate not exceeding 4s. in the pound, owners of lands subject to a fee farm rent, or other annual rent, or payment, being entitled to make a proportionate reduction for such pound rate (ss. 4 & 5). Having thus stated the general scope of the act, it may be convenient for the more easy comprehension of its provisions, as well as for purposes of reference, to classify the remaining enactments now in force under the following heads: 1. The powers, duties and qualifications of the commissioners and other officers appointed to carry the act into execution. 2. The mode in which the assessments are directed to be collected, and the rights, remedies and liabilities of parties chargeable therewith. or employments of profit, annuities, pensions, stipends or other annual payments, shall not be charged upon any salaries, &c., which shall have been specially exempted from the payment of any aids or taxes by any act of parliament, or where any such salaries, &c. shall by any order of his majesty in council, or by any warrant under his majesty's royal sign manual, or by any order of the commissioners of the treasury, have been directed to be paid net, or without deduction; or where the sums assessed on any such salaries, &c. shall, by like order of the commissioners of the treasury, have been directed to be repaid or reimbursed to the persons assessed out of the public revenue, it being also provided that the authority for any such payment net, or repayment, shall be certified by some principal officer in the department to which the office or employment belongs. The effect of these enactments will be considered in a subsequent part of the work. B2 3. The enactments relating to particular subjects of as sessment, and to particular places; and 4. The persons and subjects exempted from the tax. SECTION 2. As to the Powers, Duties and Qualifications of the The commissioners appointed for putting the act into execution were those appointed by the Land Tax Act, passed in the year 1797; and they are directed to meet together at the usual places of meeting, and ascertain and set down in writing the several proportions which ought to be charged upon every hundred, lathe, wapentake, rape, ward, or other division respectively within England, Wales, and Berwick-upon-Tweed, towards raising the sum charged upon the county, city or places for which they were appointed commissioners, subdividing themselves if necessary, so that three or more should be appointed for the service of each hundred, lathe, wapentake, rape, ward, or other division (s. 7). The commissioners within the several hundreds, &c. were next required to cause the several proportions charged on such hundreds, &c., to be equally taxed and assessed within the same, and within every parish and place therein; and for that purpose were to summon fit persons to be assessors, who were to appear before them in eight days, and to whom they were openly to read, or cause to be read, the several rates, duties and charges mentioned in the act, and openly declare the effect of their charge to them, and in what manner they ought to make their assessments. And after the delivery of their charge the commissioners were to appoint two of the principal inhabitants of each parish, township or place, assessors of the rates imposed by the act (b), and to fix a certain day for the assessors to bring in their assessments in writing, such assessors being required to assess the full sum given them in charge upon all ready money, debts, personal estates, offices, employments, annuities and pensions made chargeable by the act, and by an equal pound rate upon all manors, lands, &c. (c) within the limits of the respective parishes or places for which they should be appointed; and by the time appointed to bring a certificate of the assessment, and return the names of two persons as collectors, for whose payment of the monies collected to the receiver-general, or his deputy, the parish or place wherein they were employed were to be answerable. The assessors were also required to deliver one copy of their assessments subscribed by them to the commissioners, two duplicates of which were to be signed and sealed by the commissioners, and one to be delivered to the collectors, who were to be appointed by the commissioners for each parish or place, with a warrant directing them to collect the several sums assessed. The commissioners were at the same time required to give the collectors notice at what times or places the appeals of persons thinking themselves aggrieved by being overrated by the assessors might be heard and determined, the days so appointed being at least thirty days from the time of delivering the duplicates to the collectors. And every collector, within ten days after receiving such dupli (b) They were also empowered to nominate assessors for extra-parochial places (s. 47). (c) For the sake of brevity we shall use the word "lands" to describe all hereditaments; and wherever, therefore, the word lands occurs, it may be understood to include manors, messuages, quarries, mines, mills, parks, chaces, warrens, underwoods, fishings, tithes, tolls and yearly profits arising from any hereditaments. |