Cab Company Not Statutory Concern
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PLEADING that it was a statutory undertaking and therefore not liable for profits tax, the London General Cab Co., Ltd„ last week unsuccessfully appealed against a decision of the Tax Commissioners that the concern was liable for the tax for 1947. Mr. Justice Vaisey, in the Chancery Division, dismissed the appeal with costs.
The company contended that it carried passengers by road and was thus a statutory undertaking, according to the Finance Act, 1937. The company maintains a fleet of cabs, pays for petrol and takes two-thirds of the amount shown on the taximeter from the driver.
For the Crown, Mr. Christopher Shaweross, KC., said that in effect the company hired cabs to drivers, who were independent contractors.. The exemption in the Act covered a public bus or railway service, established for the benefit of the public, and not one where the driver could go home to bed if he wished, Mr. Justice Vaisey held that the service of carrying passengers by road was rendered by the drivers to whom the cabs were bailed and not by the company, which was for some purposes the bailor, whilst the drivers were bailees.