The Victorian Taxpayer and the Law: a Study in Constitutional Conflict

Publisher: Cambridge University Press; hardback 244 pages

This work examines how the taxpayer is protected to ensure that tax is legally levied that only the correct amount is demanded and that it is administered justly. The safeguards are Parliamentary local and judicial.

It looks at the establishment of these safeguards in English law and how they stood in 1837; it then examines how each of them fared during Queen Victoria's reign and since.

The Parliamentary safeguards were undermined by the Inland Revenue's use of its powers from 1849. Gibson Bowles challenged in 1912 and 1913 the attempt to tax on the basis of Budget resolutions alone leading to the Provisional Collection of Taxes Act 1913.

The Lords' rejection of the Paper Duty Bill in 1860 led to the Parliament Act 1911 which undermined the taxpayers' safeguards by removing the...