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Memorandum
from
the
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
contribute
to
the maintenance of
the King's
Inns.
By
the Solicitors Acts
1954 and
1960
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
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