I move Supplementary Financial Resolution No. 1— Income-Tax:—
(1) That Section 21 of the Finance Act, 1920, shall be amended by the addition at the end of the said section of the following sub-section, that is to say:—
(5) Where, for any year of assessment, two or more individuals are or would, but for the provisions of this sub-section, be entitled under this section to relief in respect of the same child, the following provisions shall have effect, that is to say:—
(a) Only one deduction under this section shall be allowed in respect of such child;
(b) where such child is maintained by one parent only, that parent only shall be entitled to claim such deduction;
(c) where such child is maintained jointly by both parents, each parent shall be entitled to claim such part of such deduction as is proportionate to the amount expended by him or her on the maintenance of such child;
(d) in ascertaining for the purposes of this sub-section whether a parent maintains a child and, if so, to what extent, any payment made by such parent for or towards the maintenance of such child which such parent is entitled to deduct in computing his or her total income for the purposes of the Income Tax Acts shall be deemed not to be a payment for or towards the maintenance of such child.
(2) It is hereby declared that it is expedient in the public interest that this Resolution shall have statutory effect under the provisions of the Provisional Collection of Taxes Act, 1927 (No. 7 of 1927).
These Financial Resolutions are not what might be described as of major importance. They arise out of the decisions in the courts—courts in Great Britain. With regard to Financial Resolution No. 1, the question of allowances for children on assessment of income-tax, it might happen, as it happened in England where the parents are separated, that both parents would claim allowance in respect of the children. It is to prevent a similar double claim arising here that Resolution No. 1 has been proposed.