Land-tax, means a tax laid upon land and houses, which in 1689 (1 Will. & Mary, c. 3) superseded all the former methods of taxing either property or persons in respect of their property, whether by tenth or fifteenths, subsidies on land, hydages, scutages, or talliages. Although generally a charge upon a landlord, yet it is a tax neither on landlord nor tenant, but on the beneficial proprietor, as distinguished from the mere tenant at rack-rent; and if a tenant have to any extent a beneficial interest, he becomes liable to the tax pro tanto, and can only charge the residue on his landlord. Houses and buildings appropriated to public purposes are not liable to land-tax. As to its origin and inequality, see 3 Hall. Cons. Hist. 135; Miller on the Land-tax; Bourdin on Land-tax.
The more agricultural counties, upon which the burden of the tax has fallen most heavily by reason of the depreciation in value of agricultural land, were greatly relieved by s. 31 of the (English) Finance Act, 1896, which fixes the maximum at one shilling in the ' in any parish, instead of at four shillings, which former maximum it had reached or approached in more than one agricultural county, such as Norfolk, Essex, Lincolnshire, and Suffolk.
The sum fixed by the (English) Land Tax Act, 1797 (38 Geo. 3, c. 5), to be paid for the land-tax in Great Britain was 2,037,627l. 9s. 0'd., made up by contributions of fixed amount from the counties and boroughs as named by that Act. The tax was annual until 1798, when by an Act of that year, the (English) Land Tax Perpetuation Act, 1798, it was made perpetual upon the basis of the valuation of 1689. The same Act provided for the redemption of the tax, but the redemption clauses were shortly afterwards superseded by the (English) Land Tax Redemption Act, 1802 (42 Geo. 3, c. 116), under which, together with the (English) Land Tax Redemption Act, 1813 (53 Geo. 3, c. 123), and other enactments, the most important being s. 32 of the (English) Finance Act, 1896 (59 & 60 Vict. c. 28), as amended by the (English) Finance Act, 1921 (11 & 12 Geo. 5, c. 32), s. 64, it may be redeemed by a capital payment of twenty-five times its amount.
The chief exemptions from the tax are colleges and hospitals.
For the various statutes for the better regulation of land-tax and its redemption, see Chitty's Statutes, tit. 'Land Tax,' and ss. 31-36 of the (English) Finance Act, 1896. See also (English) Finance Acts, 1898 (s. 12), 1918 (s. 21), 1920 (s. 63), 1921 (s. 64), 1927 (17 & 18 Geo. 5, c. 10), s. 54.
Curious 'Land Tax Commissioners' Names Acts' Names of Commissioners are passed from time to time (see, e.g., the (English) Land Tax Commissioners' Names Act, 1899 (62 & 63 Vict. c. 25), to constitute the persons therein named Land Tax Commissioners, at first expressly by 7 & 8 Geo. 4, c. 75, an Act which contained 300 pages, and afterwards by reference to a schedule signed by and deposited with the Clerk of the House of Commons.
View Judgments Citing this Phrase View Acts Citing this Phrase