The Victorian Taxpayer and the Law

Abstract

The central element of the taxpayer's relationship with the law was the protection it afforded to ensure only the correct amount of tax was paid, that it was legally levied and justly administered. These legal safeguards consisted of the fundamental constitutional provision that all taxes had to be consented to in Parliament, local tax administration, and a power to appeal to specialist tribunals and the courts. The book explains how these legal safeguards were established and how they were affected by changing social, economic and political conditions. They were found to be restrictive and inadequate, and were undermined by the increasing dominance of the executive. Though they were significantly recast, they were not destroyed. They proved flexible and robust, and the challenge they faced in Victorian England revealed that the underlying, pervasive constitutional principle of consent from which they drew their legitimacy provided an enduring protection for the taxpayer.

A Changing Role for the Administrative Law of Taxation

“…As Stebbings explains, the declining status of these bodies of local businessmen and dignitaries reduced the protection of taxpayers from arbitrary decisions of the Inland Revenue. In an interesting parallel to the argument of this article, this was compensated by enhanced opportunities to appeal and to apply for judicial review of official decisions (Stebbings, 2009, Chapter 4; de Cogan, 2013a: 105).…”

The Development of the Public Benefit Requirement for Charitable Trusts in the Nineteenth Century

“…A strict and literal approach was taken to the interpretation of taxation statutes so as not to favour the Revenue, though exemptions were interpreted liberally to favour the party who purportedly owed the taxation. 177 Despite this, by 1871 case law had 'yet to make any significant impact' on taxation practice -largely because it was not until 1874 that the courts could review tax tribunal decisions. 178 Thus, despite an unsuccessful request in 1863 that Parliament should resolve the matter, the definition of 'charitable purposes' for taxation issues was still not settled.…”

Tax Law

“…A century ago, the system was characterized by some progressivity in return for the reduction of customs duties (Hepker, 1975: 20; Trentmann, 2008: 319, 353; Wicks, 2006: 84–89). Two centuries ago, the emblem of the tax system was its administrative disregard for the privacy of estate owners who had been nurtured in the Lockean constitutional fundamental linking privacy to property in land (Emory, 1965; Stebbings, 2009). Four centuries ago, the badge of taxation was parliamentary resistance to prerogatival levies (Hill, 1961: 55).…”