A Tale of the Merger Between the Inland Revenue and HM Customs and Excise

This chapter is about a particular type of relief for expenses given only to companies. The legislation giving the relief was enacted in 1915 as part of what would now be labelled a ‘package of measures’ dealing explicitly for the first time with the taxation of companies carrying on life assurance business. But unlike the other sections of the Finance Act 1915 in the package, the relief was not limited to such companies. The chapter explains the background to the relief and in particular the pressures that were brought to bear on ministers to enact it and how other companies got included. It goes on to consider how the legislation enacted in 1915 was interpreted by those having to operate the system, and the cases and legislative changes that resulted.