Papers on the Royal Commission on the Taxation of Profits and Income (Cohen Commission), 1954-1955

This collection consists of documents submitted to the Royal Commission on the Taxation of Profits and Income by outside witnesses which would have been printed and made public if the usual course of publishing a full volume of documents and memoranda had been followed. Memoranda from the Board of Inland Revenue appeared in a separate volume and are listed in this hand list. Reference to Part A and Part B are to the main heads under which the Commission invited written evidence. Part A consisted of three related questions on 'general, social and economics' matters and Part B comprised 15 separate questions on 'particular matters'. The full list of questions is published with each day's Minutes of Evidence. The final report of the Royal Commission was published on 7th June 1955.

The Royal Commission on the Taxation of Profits and Income was chaired by Sir Lionel Cohen, the Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Cohen and was appointed in January 1951 and later chaired by Lord Radcliffe. The Commission held the following terms of reference: "…to inquire into the present system of taxation of profits and income, including its incidence and effects, with particular reference to the taxation of salaries and wages; to consider whether for the purposes of the national economy the present system is the best way of raising the required revenue from the taxation of profits and incomes, due regard being paid to the points of view of the taxpayer and of the Exchequer; to consider the present system of personal allowances, reliefs and rates of tax as a means of distributing the tax burden fairly among the individual members of the community; and to make recommendations consistent with maintaining the same total yield of the existing duties in relation to the national income.". The terms of reference were modified in March 1952 to include: "…to make recommendations bearing in mind that in the present financial situation it may be necessary to maintain the revenue from profits and income; and, in so far as they make recommendations which would on balance entail a substantial loss of revenue, to indicate an order of priority in which such recommendations should be taken into consideration.", Final Report, Command Paper No. 9474 (1955).

By boxes as follows: 1-99; 100-199; 200-299; 300-360, Inland Revenue memorandum 1-49; Inland Revenue memorandum 50-122.

By prior appointment only. Application in writing (letter or email) to the Assistant Librarian (Archives). See Nuffield College Archives location page for more details.

The handlist for the Royal Commission on the Taxation of Profits and Income collection can be found [online] Link: https://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/the-college/library/special-collection-and-archives/archive/

The collection came to the Library via Mr. J. A. Johnstone at the Commission who sent the papers to Kenneth E. Robinson, the Fellow Librarian at Nuffield College, in May 1955.