Finance (No. 2) Act 1945

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
Citation1945 c. 13


Finance (No. 2) Act, 1945

(9 & 10 Geo. 6.) CHAPTER 13.

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

[20th December 1945]

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 King'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 Purchase Tax, Customs and Excise.

Part I.

Purchase Tax, Customs and Excise.

Purchase Tax.

Purchase Tax.

S-1 Cesser of charge of purchase tax in respect of certain cooking and heating appliances and refrigerators.

1 Cesser of charge of purchase tax in respect of certain cooking and heating appliances and refrigerators.

(1) Purchase tax shall cease to be chargeable in respect of goods of the classes specified in the First Schedule to this Act.

(2) In accordance with the preceding subsection, the Seventh Schedule to the Finance (No. 2) Act, 1940 , shall be amended by inserting in the third column thereof, immediately before the entry relating to hurricane lamps and other lamps, the words contained in the First Schedule to this Act.

(3) The preceding provisions of this section shall be deemed to have come into operation on the twenty-fourth day of October, nineteen hundred and forty-five.

(4) Tax shall not be chargeable by virtue of a purchase of goods of any of the said classes in respect of any such goods delivered under the purchase on or after the said twenty-fourth day of October, notwithstanding that the purchase was made before the said day.

(5) Where, in respect of goods of any of the said classes bought under a purchase made before the said twenty-fourth day of October, any tax which would have been chargeable if this Act had not been passed does not become chargeable, the buyer may, in the absence of agreement to the contrary and if the seller has had in respect of the goods the benefit of the tax not becoming chargeable, deduct from the consideration a sum equal to the amount which would have been the amount of the tax chargeable in respect of the goods if this Act had not been passed.

(6) Nothing in this section shall affect the operation of section twenty of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 1940 (which empowers the Treasury by order to direct that tax shall become chargeable in respect of goods of any class in respect of which it is not for the time being chargeable).

S-2 Exemption from purchase tax of wireless sets for the blind.

2 Exemption from purchase tax of wireless sets for the blind.

2. The Commissioners may, subject to such conditions as they may impose for the protection of the Revenue, remit purchase tax chargeable in respect of a wireless receiving set, by virtue either of a purchase thereof or of such an appropriation or application thereof as is mentioned in section twenty-five of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 1940, if they are satisfied, by a certificate to that effect given to them on behalf of a charity registered under section three of the Blind Persons Act, 1920, that the purchase, appropriation or application, was made for the purpose of making the set available for the use of the blind to the exclusion of use otherwise, and that the property therein will be retained by the charity for that purpose.

S-3 Temporary exemption from purchase tax of war memorials.

3 Temporary exemption from purchase tax of war memorials.

3. Subject to such conditions as they may impose for the protection of the Revenue, the Commissioners, upon an application in that behalf made to them within the period of five years beginning with the passing of this Act, may remit purchase tax chargeable in respect of an article of furniture, plate or textile material, or an ornament, by virtue either of a purchase thereof or of such an appropriation or application thereof as is mentioned in section twenty-five of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 1940, if they are satisfied that the purchase, appropriation or application was made for the purpose of placing the article or ornament in a place of religious worship as a war memorial and that it will be retained therein

Mechanically Propelled Vehicles.

Mechanically Propelled Vehicles.

S-4 Amendment as to grading of certain of the rates of excise duty on mechanically propelled hackney and goods vehicles, etc.

4 Amendment as to grading of certain of the rates of excise duty on mechanically propelled hackney and goods vehicles, etc.

(1) For the purpose of providing, as respects the duties of excise chargeable in respect of mechanically propelled vehicles,—

(a ) for the grading of certain of the rates of the said duties which are graded according to seating capacity, or to weight unladen, by reference to units consisting respectively of a single person and of one quarter of a ton, in lieu of by reference to larger units;

(b ) for revoking such of the rates of the said duties as are chargeable in respect of vehicles by reference to their not being fitted entirely with pneumatic tyres; and

(c ) for making certain formal amendments in the provisions by which the said duties are charged;

section thirteen of the Finance Act, 1920 (which imposes the said duties) shall, as from the first day of January, nineteen hundred and forty-six, have effect subject to the subsequent provisions of this section.

(2) The said section thirteen shall have effect as respects vehicles of the descriptions specified in paragraph 3 of the Second Schedule to the said Act (which paragraph relates to hackney carriages) as if the paragraph set out in Part I of the Second Schedule to this Act were substituted for that paragraph.

(3) The said section thirteen shall have effect as respects vehicles of the descriptions specified in sub-paragraphs (a ), (b ) and (c ) of paragraph 5 of the Second Schedule to the said Act (which paragraph relates to goods vehicles) as if for the rates of duty specified in those sub-paragraphs there were substituted the rates of duty specified in Part II of the Second Schedule to this Act.

(4) The rates of the duties chargeable under the said section thirteen in respect of goods vehicles used solely within the area of a local authority by that local authority, or by any person acting in pursuance of a contract with that local authority, for the purpose of cleansing or watering roads or cleansing gullies shall be those specified in Part III of the Second Schedule to this Act, in lieu of those specified in subparagraphs (a ) and (d ) of the paragraph numbered 5 in the Third Schedule to the Finance Act, 1928 , and—

(a ) such vehicles shall be excepted from the descriptions of vehicles specified in sub-paragraph (c ) of paragraph 5 of the Second Schedule to the Finance Act, 1920, and, if used for drawing a trailer, from sub-paragraph (d ) thereof;

(b ) the proviso to section twenty-five of the Finance Act, 1933 (by virtue of which such vehicles are excepted as aforesaid), shall be repealed:

Provided that the said duties in respect of such vehicles shall be deemed for all purposes to be chargeable under paragraph 5 of the Second Schedule to the Finance Act, 1920.

S-5 Charge of excise duty on certain mechanically propelled vehicles by reference to cylinder capacity in lieu of horse-power.

5 Charge of excise duty on certain mechanically propelled vehicles by reference to cylinder capacity in lieu of horse-power.

(1) Section thirteen of the Finance Act, 1920, shall have effect as if the following proviso were inserted at the end of paragraph 6 of the Second Schedule to that Act, that is to say,—

‘Provided that, notwithstanding anything in the preceding provisions of this paragraph, the duty to be charged in respect of a vehicle falling within this paragraph which derives its motive power wholly from an internal combustion engine worked by a cylinder or cylinders shall, if the vehicle is registered under the Roads Act, 1920 , for the first time on or after the appointed day, be charged at a rate for each unit or part of a unit of the cylinder capacity of the vehicle equal to four-fifths of the rate fixed by this paragraph for each unit or part of a unit of horse-power, so however that if duty so charged in respect of the vehicle would be less than duty charged in respect thereof at the rate fixed by this paragraph for a vehicle not exceeding 6 horse-power, the rate of the duty to be charged in respect of the vehicle shall be the last-mentioned rate.

For the purposes of this proviso—

(a ) a unit of cylinder capacity shall be one hundred cubic centimetres;

(b ) the appointed day shall be such day as the Treasury may by order appoint.’

(2) In—

(a ) subsection (3) of section thirteen of the Finance Act, 1920 (which confers power to make regulations as to the calculation of a unit of horse-power);

(b ) subsection (3) of section thirteen of the Roads Act, 1920 (which relates to the burden of proof in respect of certain matters in proceedings relating to licences under the Finance Act, 1920); and

(c ) paragraph (f) of section twelve of the Road Traffic Act, 1934 (which provides for the avoidance of restrictions by reference to certain matters on the scope of insurance against third-party risks);

after the words ‘horse-power’ there...

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