Abstract
AT a time when the financial position of learning and scientific research is a matter of serious concern, no little interest is attached to the decision of a Divisional Court when Mr. Justice Hawke, Mr. Justice Charles and Mr. Justice Tucker on April 25 dismissed an appeal by the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London (The Times, April 26). The appeal was from the decision of the County of London Quarter Sessions that the School was not exempted under Section 1 of the Scientific Societies Act. 1843, from the payment of rates in respect of certain premises occupied by it. The provisions of this Act, by which a “society instituted for the purposes of science, literature, or the fine arts exclusively” may be exempted from the payment of rates, but of which full advantage had not been taken for some time, were successfully invoked by a number of learned and scientific societies in the financial stringency which followed on the War of 1914–18. It was a further manifestation of the favourable attitude of the authorities towards learning and research at this time, when not only was exemption from income tax allowed or continued to scientific societies which in addition to serving the interests of their members could be shown to be carrying out work of public utility, but also an additional concession made income tax recoverable on subscriptions guaranteed over a period of years.
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Scientific Research and Taxation. Nature 145, 696 (1940). https://doi.org/10.1038/145696b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/145696b0