I beg to move, in page 29, line 13, at the end, to insert:
"140.—(1) A person who has delivered a return or particulars which he has been required under the enactments relating to excess profits tax or the national defence contribution to deliver or furnish and discovers any omission or wrong statement therein, may deliver an additional return or additional particulars rectifying the same, and shall not thereafter be liable to any proceeding by reason of his omission or wrong statement.
The Seventh Schedule makes applicable to Excess Profits Tax and National Defence Contribution the penalties for failure to deliver true and correct Income Tax returns which were imposed by Section 107 of the Income Tax Act, 1918. That Act also contained a relieving Section, Section 140, which empowers the taxpayer to amend his return on discovery by him of any omission or wrong statement, and it goes on to enact that the taxpayer shall not thereafter be liable to any proceedings by reason of his omission or wrong statement. It is obviously right and proper that the penalties imposed under Section 107 with regard to false Income Tax returns should be imposed for false returns for Excess Profits Tax and National Defence Contribution, but I think that my right hon. Friend will be ready to admit that as a matter of equity the corresponding relieving provisions of Section 140 should also be applied.(2) A person who has not delivered such a return or such particulars within the time limited may deliver it or them at any time before proceedings for recovery of a penalty, incurred in respect of such non-delivery, have been commented, and thereafter no such proceedings shall be taken."
I think that my hon. Friend has put forward a reasonable case. As we have incorporated the major part of the Section, it is fair that what is called the relieving Section should be applied in these cases. In accepting the Amendment, I do not want the matter to be misunderstood by anybody. If anybody is guilty of fraud and sends in a corrected statement afterwards, it will not get him out of his trouble. With that clear understanding I see no reason why this protection should not be equally applicable in these cases as it was in the other. Therefore I accept the Amendment and congratulate my hon. Friend on getting the Amendment into the Bill.
Amendment agreed to.
Schedule, as amended, agreed to.
Eighth Schedule agreed to.
Bill reported, with an Amendment; as amended, to be considered upon the next Sitting Day.