Devil in the Detail
[BELL, Benjamin].
Three essays on taxation of income, with remarks on the late act of parliament on that subject. On the national debt; the public funds; on the probable consequences of the law for the sale of the land tax. etc. London, T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1799.
8vo, pp. 140; a good copy, disbound, the last page detached.
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Three essays on taxation of income, with remarks on the late act of parliament on that subject. On the national debt; the public funds; on the probable consequences of the law for the sale of the land tax. etc.
First edition. On 3 December 1798, the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer, William Pitt the Younger, denounced the ineffectuality of traditional methods of taxation and announced the introduction of a tax ‘upon the leading branches of income’. One of the major weaknesses of his plan was the data on which Pitt based his revenue projections. Within six months of the introduction of the income tax two commentators, Benjamin Bell and Henry Beeke, published alternative estimates, by far the most sophisticated to be published in response to Pitt’s speech. Although Bell and Beeke differed considerably one from another, their work did much to address the fragility of the data collection system.
Goldsmiths’ 17617.