1. Excise (true revenue 1. Civil Government
_ex._ licences) 2,952,000 charges (_ex._ Constabulary
2. Local Taxes-- and Lord
(_a_) Stamps 333,000 Lieutenant's salary) 6,952,000
(_b_) Death Duties 914,000 2. Collection of Ireland
(_c_) Income Tax 1,307,000 Revenues, etc. 298,000
(_d_) Excise licences 284,000 3. Postal Services 1,404,000
3. Postal Revenue 1,155,000 4. Contribution to Constabulary
4. Miscellaneous 150,000 (2/3rds of
--------- £1,464,500) 976,000
7,095,000
Deficit 2,535,000
--------- ---------
9,630,000 9,630,000
The narrow surplus of £144,000 has disappeared, and instead there is on
present-day figures the substantial deficit of £2,535,000. Here again it
may be observed that the Excise duties are fixed by the Imperial
Parliament, and the Postal charges are presumably also invariable. The
first Budget deficit would, as before, be not less than £3,000,000. The
taxes within the absolute control of the Irish Parliament would have
been producing a revenue of £2,838,000. It is within this range of
taxation, or by the imposition of new direct taxes, that the Irish
Chancellor of the Exchequer would have been compelled to raise an
additional £3,000,000 in order to make the two sides of his account
balance.
Owing to the mistake already referred to, Mr. Gladstone prepared and
presented a third scheme, whose principal features were as follows:--
1. Ireland's contribution to Imperial expenditure to be one-third of
the true revenue of taxes levied in Ireland.
2. Ireland to be credited with miscellaneous receipts and surplus (if
any) arising from postal services.
3. Ireland to pay out of revenues credited to her, two-thirds of the
cost of the Constabulary, all Civil Government charges and any deficit
on postal services.
4. The Customs and Inland Revenue duties and the rates for Postal
charges to be fixed and collected by Imperial Parliament.
5. After six years (1) Irish contribution to Imperial Services to be
revised; (2) the collection of Inland Revenue duties to be undertaken by
Irish Government; (3) Irish legislation to impose the stamp duties,
income tax, and excise licences. The financial clauses as thus
remodelled and simplified were expected to produce a surplus of
£512,000. The characteristic feature of this arrangement was the
provision for handing over to the Imperial Exchequer one-third of the
Irish true tax revenue as Ireland's payment on account of Imperial
Services. How matters would stand if this arrangement were applied to
the present financial situation in Ireland may be seen from the
following table.