Income tax

Unrestricted

Recoveries from salaries and pensions in respect of United Kingdom Income Tax appear in these records as early as 1803. In many of the volumes of pay and pension accounts up to 1860 will be found certificates of the Company's Assessor of Income Tax that he has made the required deductions. In the volumes in this series will be found original papers and declarations about the appointment of senior members of the Accountant General's Department as Assessors of Income Tax, and of more senior members of the Office as Clerks to the Commissioners of Inland Revenue. From 1860, the names of those so appointed appear in the Establishment List of the India Office. [See L/AG/30/16-18]. Assessments were made by the India Office and confirmed by the Inland Revenue Department. The method of agreement between the Company and India Office and the Inland Revenue Department as to the amount to be paid to the latter Department is not known before 1870. From that year, annual returns were made by the India Office, but they comprise only the numbers of persons assessed and the total tax recovered in each of the various kinds of pay, pension and miscellaneous payments. From about 1925, returns were made in sections annually of each individual assessment, the whole being totalled so far as the amounts of tax recovered were concerned, and the grand total eventually agreed with the main books of account. Those returns were sent to the Inland Revenue Department over the signature of two Clerks to the Commissioners. These 'Assessment Registers' have been destroyed, two only have been retained as specimens. In the early years of income tax deductions, the method of assessment was simple, the rate of recovery taking no account of any other possible income, and no personal or other allowances were admissible. It seems easy therefore to check the accuracy of the amounts recovered against the standard tables of income tax for those years which are still available. Such tables are occasionally fixed to the inside covers of volumes. As regulations grew more complex, it became the practice to include, as part of the personal pay or pension account, a calculation of the total amount of tax recoverable. For many years, personnel of the Indian services on leave from India could claim exemption from United Kingdom Income Tax on their leave pay, provided they did not possess a permanent place of abode in this country and the period of residence here was more than 182 days in a fiscal year. In such cases, the income tax column of the pay account was usually endorsed 'R/A' meaning: 'Resident abroad'. About 1939, the Government of India imposed Indian Income Tax on leave pay issued in England. Assessments and recoveries were made in this country on a provisional basis subject to adjustment in due course by the tax authorities in India. No general compilations were made, and the only records available, apart from recoveries recorded in individual accounts, were on personal files now destroyed.