DRESS SHOWS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 149, 27 June 1925, Page 16

DRESS SHOWS

NEW METHODS OF TAXATION.

:Owing to. the- closing, of tha financial year at the end oE March the .revenue officers and income tax collectors have, says the- London correspondent of the ■Melbourne "Argus," been eveu more energetic than usual.":" Mr; Churchill wants to take'" sixpence or a shilling , o ft' our income tux, and' this happy end can only bo achieved if .'the revenue of the United Kingdom proves buoyant. An unexpected source of revenue haa been revealed, in dress shows organised by irench milliners-, and dressmakers -iV London hotels and private houses where the/latest models are shown, and" where business is,■secured at tho expense of rival British firms in London. The competition is specially unfair to British dressmakers...-as the foreign firms ~ e t their exhibition-rooms free of chareo wl.cn English hostesses lend their picture galleries or dining-rooms for such a .show ■It .will bo remembered that tho Countess ot Oxford,- when wife of- the British l nine -Minister, staged a dress show of this kind ;it 10, Downing street. Since then, many "-society leaders 'have organised ■similar dress shows, lending'their rooms inviting guests, and even providing Heht refreshment. Now the Board of InJ-Tml ■Ivovenue lias discovered that foreign dressmakers, who proiikby this desire'of hostesses to secure-novel "entertainments or their guests, are possible, objects for taxation. Any foreign firm •trpdim' in London is liable to British taxation on its income, and .private detectives have teS „"? U^lLs?^{ °£^£ fa presentation of demand notes. Tho Bond street ami other West End dressmakers arc • delighted at the prospect of Uieir foreign rivals being suitably taxed as they have long regarded this, competition as unfair. ■ It, m understood that there is lib"- intention 'of taxing Uio ladies who give their rooms, but if they have been •insulted by considerable fees, as stems more thiiii likely, they would also ;m----"pear, to bo .suitable victims for tlib Inlaud .lvovonuo' Departiiieiit:' 'This is a case whevo '■ iiiweiiaud tiixiil.iuii is liiormilihly. approvcU- Ly all JJrituus, ■ mut-tu-Uub uad Jeuuuiiwi ■ .- . ■