Finance Act 1952

9 Discharge or reduction of tax in certain cases

(1) This section applies to the three following classes of goods, namely.—

(a) wearing apparel (including handkerchiefs);

(b) cloth, plastic sheeting which is of a kind suitable for making garments or curtains, tablecloths and similar soft furnishings, domestic textile articles, soft furnishings and bedding, but excluding floor coverings and material for floor coverings;

(c) furniture of a kind used for domestic purposes, but excluding clocks, musical instruments, heating or lighting appliances and apparatus and appliances and apparatus operated by gas or electricity.

(2) Where purchase tax is or would but for this section be chargeable in respect of any article or articles falling within any of those three classes, being an article or articles of one of the descriptions specified in the prescribed list for that class, then subject to the following provisions of this section—

(a) if the wholesale value of that article or of any of those articles, as the case may be, does not exceed the amount specified in the list in relation to that description, the tax shall not be chargeable in respect of the article in question; and

(b) if the wholesale value of the article or of any of the articles does exceed the amount so specified, the tax chargeable in respect of the article in question shall be chargeable on the excess only instead of on the wholesale value of the article.

(3) The list contained in Part I of the-Fourth Schedule to this Act shall be the prescribed list for the first of the classes mentioned in subsection (1) of this section, and the list contained in Part II of that Schedule shall be the prescribed list for the second:

Provided that the Treasury shall have power by order to make any addition to, omission from or other change in the descriptions specified in the lists for those classes, to vary the amounts so specified and to amend the said Schedule.

(4) The prescribed list for furniture shall be such list as may be prescribed by order of the Treasury.

(5) Subsections (3) to (6) of section twenty-one of the Finance Act, 1948 (which contain supplementary provisions about orders under that section, including provision for their submission to the House of Commons), shall apply to orders of the Treasury under this section, and any such order which has the effect of increasing the tax chargeable in respect of any articles shall be treated as an order increasing the rate of tax for the purposes of subsection (5) of that section (which relates to orders requiring affirmative approval by resolution of the House of Commons).

(6) An article shall be treated for the purposes of this section as excluded from any description specified in the prescribed list for a class of goods within which the article falls, if the article is comprised in some other description so specified and, of the amounts specified in the list or lists in relation to those descriptions, the amount specified in relation to the second mentioned description is the lower (or, where either amount is such as to be different for different articles, is the lower for that article).

(7) Without prejudice to the generality of section thirty-three of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 1940, regulations may be made by the Commissioners under Part V of that Act providing for any matter for which provision appears to them to be necessary for the purpose of giving effect to this section, and in particular for prescribing a distinguishing mark for any material or class ot material, for regulating the use of any such mark, and for treating articles of any description which are not marked with the distinguishing mark for a particular material or class of material as articles of some other material or class of material.

(8) Without prejudice to subsection (2) of the said section thirty-three (which penalizes offences under regulations of the Commissioners), any person who—

(a) knowingly Or recklessly uses a distinguishing mark prescribed for the purposes of this section in connection with articles to which it is not appropriate; or

(b) with intent to deceive uses in connection with any articles any mark resembling a mark prescribed for those purposes;

shall be liable to a penalty of five hundred pounds or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to both; and for the purposes of this subsection a person shall be deemed to use a mark in connection with any article if he marks it with the mark or if he sells it, delivers it on sale or exposes or offers it for sale marked with the mark.

(9) In the enactments relating to purchase tax the expression " chargeable goods " shall include any article of a description in respect of which tax is for the time being expressed to be chargeable under Part I of the Eighth Schedule to the Finance Act, 1948, as amended, notwithstanding that by virtue of this section tax is not chargeable in respect of the article.

(10) Subsections (1) and (2) of section twenty-one of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 1940 (which define wholesale value and provide for arbitration on disputes as to wholesale value), shall apply in relation to the wholesale value of chargeable goods in respect of which by virtue of this section tax is not or may not be chargeable, as they would apply if the tax were chargeable; and in the proviso to subsection (2) of that section (which provides that, Unless certain conditions are fulfilled, a dispute shall not be referred to arbitration, but tax shall be chargeable on the wholesale value as fixed by the Commissioners) for the words " on the wholesale value " there shall be substituted the words " on the basis of the wholesale value ".

(11) Section twenty-four of the Finance Act, 1948 (which relates to the effect of changes in the charge to tax in relation to pre-existing contracts), shall apply to any change made by or under this section in the goods in respect of which tax is chargeable or in the amount of tax chargeable in respect of any goods as it applies to changes made in the clashes of goods which are chargeable goods or in the rate at Which tax is chargeable in respect of any goods.

(12) This section, except in relation to the third of the classes mentioned in subsection (1), shall have effect as from the seventeenth day of March, nineteen hundred and fifty-two:

Provided that as respects the periods mentioned in Part III of the Fourth Schedule to this Act the prescribed lists shall be the lists contained in Parts I and II of that Schedule modified in accordance with the said Part III.