Finance Act 1952

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
Citation1952 c. 33


Finance Act , 1952

(15 & 16 Geo. 6 & 1 Eliz. 2) CHAPTER 33

An Act to grant certain duties, to alter other duties, and to amend the law relating to the National Debt and the Public Revenue, and to make further provision in connection with Finance.

Most Gracious Sovereign,

We , Your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Commons of the United Kingdom in Parliament assembled, towards raising the necessary supplies to defray Your Majesty's public expenses, and making an addition to the public revenue, have freely and voluntarily resolved to give and grant unto Your Majesty the several duties hereinafter mentioned; and do therefore most humbly beseech Your Majesty that it may be enacted, and be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

I Customs and Excise

Part I

Customs and Excise

S-1 Hydrocarbon oils, etc.

1 Hydrocarbon oils, etc.

(1) Sections one to three of the Finance Act, 1950 (which relate to the duties of customs and excise on hydrocarbon oils and to the duty of excise on petrol substitutes), and section one of the Finance Act, 1951, so far as it relates to the excise duty on spirits used for making power methylated spirits, shall have effect as if in subsection (1) of section one of the said Act of 1950, as originally enacted, (which relates to the rate of customs duty on hydrocarbon oils and indirectly determines the rates of the other duties) for the words from ‘eighteen pence a gallon’ onwards there were substituted the words ‘two shillings and sixpence a gallon’.

(2) In subsection (2) of section one of the said Act of 1950, as originally enacted, (which relates to the rates of the customs rebates allowed on the delivery for home consumption of heavy oils) for the words from ‘eighteen pence a gallon’ to the end of paragraph (a ) there shall be substituted the words ‘two shillings and sixpence a gallon’, and for the words from ‘seventeen pence a gallon’ to the end of paragraph (b ) there shall be substituted the words ‘two shillings and fivepence a gallon’.

(3) The amount of the allowance payable under subsection (4) of section eight of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 1945, in respect of indigenous oils used in a refinery shall, in the case of oils charged with the excise duty on their removal to a refinery, be determine by reference to the rates in force for the customs duty and rebates at the time of that removal, instead of by reference to the rates in force when the oils are used.

(4) This section shall have effect as from six o'clock in the evening of the eleventh day of March, nineteen hundred and fifty-two.

S-2 Classification of entertainments for purposes of entertainments duty, and rates of duty.

2 Classification of entertainments for purposes of entertainments duty, and rates of duty.

(1) There shall be three scales of entertainments duty, of which the lowest (to be known as the first scale) shall consist of the reduced rates set out in the Seventh Schedule to the Finance Act, 1948, the next (to be known as the second scale) shall be the scale set out in Part I of the First Schedule to this Act, and the highest (to be known as the third scale) shall be the scale set out in Part II of the said First Schedule:

Provided that as respects payments for admission to entertainments held before the twenty-seventh day of July, nineteen hundred and fifty-two the third scale shall consist of the full rates set out in the First Schedule to the Finance Act, 1951.

(2) The first scale shall be applicable in the case of any entertainment where all the performers whose words or actions constitute the entertainment are actually present and performing and the entertainment consists solely of one or more of the following items, namely—

(a ) a stage play,

(b ) a ballet (whether a stage play or not),

(c ) a performance of music,

(d ) an eisteddfod,

(e ) a lecture,

(f ) a recitation,

(g ) a music-hall or other variety entertainment,

(h ) a puppet or marionette show,

(i ) a circus, a travelling show or a menagerie.

(3) The third scale shall be applicable in the case of any entertainment which consists of or includes any item being a reproduction of the words or actions of performers not actually present and performing or of other events, scenes or objects (whether real or imaginary) or a reproduction of a musical performance.

(4) The second scale shall be applicable in the case of any entertainment which consists of or includes racing, games, other sports or an exhibition, being an entertainment not falling within either of the two last foregoing subsections, and in the case of any other entertainment not falling within either of those subsections.

(5) Section fifteen of the Finance Act, 1950 (which provides for a reduction of duty in the case of entertainments consisting of a cinematograph exhibition together with certain other items) shall have effect as if for references to duty chargeable at the reduced rates and at the full rates respectively there were substituted references to duty chargeable on the first scale and on the third scale respectively; and in subsection (2) of section sixteen of that Act (which charges duty at the reduced rates in the case of certain entertainments which would be exempted but for including items chargeable at the reduced rates) for the words ‘at reduced rates by virtue of the said subsection (3)’ there shall be substituted the words ‘on the first scale’ and for the words ‘the said subsection (3)’ there shall be substituted the words ‘subsection (2) of section two of the Finance Act, 1952’.

(6) In so far as the provisions of this section charging duty on the second scale provide for reductions of entertainments duty, they shall apply, and be deemed to have applied, as respects payments for admission (whenever made) to entertainments held on or after the thirtieth day of March, nineteen hundred and fifty-two; and where entertainments duty has been charged on any payment made before the commencement of this Act, and by virtue of this section the duty should have been charged at a lower rate than that at which it was in fact charged, the person by whom the duty was paid shall be entitled to repayment of the amount of the overcharge.

(7) In so far as the provisions of this section charging duty on the second scale provide for increases of entertainments duty, they shall apply, and be deemed to have applied, as respects payments for admission to entertainments held on or after the thirteenth day of September, nineteen hundred and fifty-two, other than payments made before the twelfth day of March in that year.

(8) For the purposes of this section—

(a ) the expression ‘reproduction’, in relation to any matter, means that it is reproduced by one or more of the following means, that is to say, by the use of any description of record of sound, by means involving the use of cinematography, or from an apparatus which receives, or is associated with an apparatus which receives, matter transmitted from elsewhere;

(b ) the expression ‘music’ includes both instrumental and vocal music, and the expression ‘musical’ shall be construed accordingly;

(c ) the expression ‘stage play’ has the meaning assigned to it by section twenty-three of the Theatres Act, 1843, except that it includes theatrical representations in booths and shows to which that Act does not apply by virtue of the proviso to that section;

and for the purposes of subsections (2) to (4) of this section a reproduction of music shall be disregarded where it is played at the beginning or end of an entertainment or in any interval between items of an entertainment, and the total time taken by music so played on any day amounts to less than one quarter of the total time taken by the entertainment or entertainments given in the premises in question on that day, or where it is played only as an accompaniment to, or incidentally to, another item.

(9) Nothing in this section shall affect the enactments relating to entertainments duty in so far as they provide for exemption from that duty or for any other matter which does not relate to the rates of duty.

(10) The enactments specified in Part II of the Fourteenth Schedule to this Act are repealed, subject to and in accordance with the following provisions:—

(a ) in so far as any such enactment provides for reduced rates of duty in the case of entertainments falling within subsection (4) of this section, the repeal shall not affect duty in respect of such entertainments held before the thirteenth day of September, nineteen hundred and fifty-two;

(b ) in so far as any such enactment provides for the full rates of duty in the case of entertainments falling within subsection (4) of this section, the repeal shall have effect, and be deemed to have had effect, as respects such entertainments held on or after the thirtieth day of March, nineteen hundred and fifty-two, and as respects payments for admission to such entertainments so held whenever made;

(c ) notwithstanding anything in the last foregoing paragraph, the repeal of the First Schedule to the Finance Act, 1951 shall not affect duty in respect of entertainments held before the twenty-seventh day of July, nineteen hundred and fifty-two.

S-3 Music-hall and other variety entertainments not to be exempted from entertainments duty.

3 Music-hall and other variety entertainments not to be exempted from entertainments duty.

(1) An entertainment consisting of one or more of the items specified in subsection (1) of section eight of the Finance Act, 1946 (which subsection exempts an entertainment consisting of one or more of certain specified items which is provided by a body not conducted or established for profit...

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