The Gazette 1964/67

Memorandum Incorporated Law Society of Ireland on the annual payment of £500 to the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting. The annual payment of £500 made by the Society to the Incorporated Council of Law Re porting is a relic of the discriminatory taxes im posed on solicitors for the first time in the eight eenth century. Down to the year 1954 a stamp duty of £80 was paid to the Revenue Commis sioners on each apprentice's indentures and a duty of £9 in the case of a city solicitor and £3 in the case of a Dublin solicitor was paid to the Revenue Commissioners on the annual issue of a solicitor's practising certificate. These were war taxes imposed by Pitt to meet the expenses in curred by Great Britain following the American War of Independence. In 1784 Pitt sought to raise a loan on new taxes and in introducing his budget stated that he found himself at a dis advantage in having to propose unpopular taxes. He proposed taxes on servants, retail shops, gloves, pawnbrokers, sale and an additional tax on post horses. A backbencher is said to have suggested a tax on attorneys instead of the shop tax and by 25 Geo. Ill c. 80 the practising certificate duty was imposed for the first time. The stamp duty on solicitors' apprentices' indentures was first imposed by the Stamp Act 1790. It was varied by successive stamp acts and eventually was fixed at £80 of which £14 was appropriated by the Revenue Commissioners to the Honour able Society of King's Inns. The Council of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland continually protested against the imposition of these taxes on one branch of the profession without any countervailing benefit and the records of the Society show that deputations were sent to Eng land to interview members of the British Gov ernment, including Mr. Gladstone when Prime Minister, in an effort to have the taxes removed. They were imposed at a time before income tax had been thought of when discriminatory tax ation such as the newspaper tax was used as a means of raising revenue. The newspaper and other discriminatory taxes were long since re moved but the tax on solicitors remained. Eventually in 1954 when the .Solicitors Act 1954 was introduced the certificate duty was re moved and the £80 stamp duty was reduced to £14 stamp duty on each deed of apprenticeship which continued to be paid by the Revenue Commissioners to the Society of King's Inns. This remaining vestige of the tax was removed by the Finance Act 1964 and the solicitors' pro fession was thereby relieved of the obligation to from the

contribute

to

the maintenance of

the King's

Inns. By

the Solicitors Acts the Society accepted the obligation to establish and maintain a Compensation Fund for the benefit of the public. The normal annual contribution made by each solicitor to the Compensation Fund on taking out a practising certificate was fixed at £5 by the 1954 Act. This was raised to £20 by the 1960 Act and the Society was empowered to raise it. In order to ensure the financial stability of the fund the Council raised the con tribution to £40 for the practice year 1965/66. As a further protection for the public and the Com pensation Fund, the Council recently made the Solicitors' Accounts (Amendment No. 2) Regula tions 1966, obliging each practising solicitor to lodge each year with the Society an accountant's certificate that he has complied with the pro visions of the Accounts Regulations. The annual payment of £500 to the Incor porated Council of Law Reporting arose in this way. The Department of Finance in agreeing in 1954 to the abolition of the duty on practising certificates and the reduction of the stamp duty on solicitors' apprentices' indentures requested the Council to make an annual payment of £500 to the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting. The Society unwillingly accepted this arrange ment in older to have duties removed. There is no statutory or other legal obligation on the Society to make the payment but it has been made since 1954 in pursuance of the arrangements mentioned. Neither the Society or the King's Inns or ihe General Council of the Bar make any payment to the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting. The main revenue of the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting is an annual subsidy from public funds of about £4,000 together with revenue from the sale of law reports. The subsidy from the Law Society is a comparatively in significant part of its revenue. The Law Society and the members of the solicitors' profession have always regarded this payment of £500 to the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting as an unfair burden on the solicitors' profession. Since 1954 there have been several important changes in the financial position, all of which resulted in the imposition of further burdens on solicitors. 1. The change in the stamp duty position under the Solicitors Act 1954 relieved solicitors of stamp duties amounting to about £14,000 per annum while the profession undertook a statutory obliga tion to contribute about £6,500 per annum to the Compensation Fund. Following the enact ment of the Solicitors (Amendment) Act 1960 the 77 1954 and 1960