We have thus a record of 1,100,000 assessments, but these assessments do not always correspond to individual tax-payers.
Item a, "Persons not employees," gives us the fact that 416,661 individuals are taxed in respect of trading or professional profits. Item b reveals the existence of 53,663 firms with an unknown number of partners. Item c covers a great many large and small shareholders. Item d covers a large number of investors who have lent money to local bodies. Item e similarly covers many persons of property deriving interest from various securities which are taxed "at the source." In items f and g each assessment refers to an individual.
Further, these 1,100,000 assessments are made under Schedules D and E only, which cover but £675,000,000 out of a total gross assessment to income tax of £1,010,000,000 in 1908-9. There remain to consider Schedules A, B, and C.
A moment's reflection will show that from these three schedules, which deal respectively with realty, farmers' profits, and government securities, we can expect little assistance. The assessments under Schedule A are made upon tenants, who in the majority of cases are not the actual and ultimate tax-payers. The number of assessments is enormous; we do not know it, but it would not help us if we did, for it has no relation whatever to the number of property owners. Under Schedule B, as is explained elsewhere,[12] there are few income tax payers. Under Schedule C certain interest from home and foreign government securities is taxed, but not by assessment on the actual tax-payers.
To sum up, the number of assessments to income tax is not known, and, if it were known, it would be very much greater than the number of individual tax-payers. Two-thirds of the income tax is collected, not directly from the persons who owe the tax, but indirectly or "at the source." It is possible for an individual tax-payer to appear more than once in each schedule. With delightful humour the Inland Revenue Commissioners give a hypothetical case of a composite income of £5000 per annum, made up as follows:—
HYPOTHETICAL COMPOSITE INCOME
| Schedule. | Amount. | |
| A | Profits from the Ownership of Lands, Houses, etc. | £500 |
| B | Profits from the Occupation of Lands | 200 |
| C | Profits from Government Securities | 200 |
| D | Profits as an Author | 100 |
| D | Profits as a Solicitor (partner in a firm the total profits of which are £5000) | 2,500 |
| D | Profits from Investments in a Public Company (total profits of the Company, £55,000) | 500 |
| D | Profits from Investment in Municipal Stock | 100 |
| D | Profits from Investments in Foreign Bonds (payable by coupons cashed in the United Kingdom) | 100 |
| D | Salary as a Land-Agent | 500 |
| E | Salary as a Borough Auditor | 300 |
| £5,000 | ||
This hypothetical gentleman, who is at once a landlord, a farmer, a fundholder, a man of letters, a lawyer, a shareholder, an investor in foreign bonds, a land-agent, and a borough auditor, does great credit to the sense of humour of the Inland Revenue authorities, and may be called an extreme case. There are, however, tens of thousands of fortunate or unfortunate persons who are at once business men, investors, and landlords or houselords, and it is clear that if we are to arrive at the actual number of individuals who earn or receive incomes of £160 per annum or upwards we must proceed by other methods.
Before leaving the table on page 33, however, the reader should take note of the low range of incomes it reveals, so far as individuals can be detected in the list: