PARLIAMENT.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1882, 16 October 1913, Page 4

PARLIAMENT.

A QUIET NIGHT.

WORKING ON SMALL BILLS,

NO CONTENTIOUS MATTER,

Tho Legislative Counoil sat at- 2.80 p.m.

DEATH DUTIES. The Hoii, J. t). ORMOND tasked tho Minister of Internal Affairs whether ho would ■■consider tho working of tho Death. Duties Act as set forth in the following memorandum, and so amend tho law as to, givo relief: —

The eleventh section of tho Death Duties Act, 1909, provides, amongst other things, that in computing tho finnj -balance of the estate of the, deceased no , allowance shall be niado>in respect of the amount of estato'or other duty' payable under the Act. Tho meaning of this is that whin the estate duty is . paid it shall ho paid upon tho whole cstnto,/and not only upon.what remains after tho estate duty is deducted. \T|io reason for tho provision is'that under the previous'legislation the ques-tion-was .raised, in thoease of in re the will of Lyell, decoasod, reported N.Z.L.R.; . Volume riii, page 414, as to whether estate duty was payable upon the estate duty, or whether estate duty should bo (leductetl" and estate duty payable pnly, upon tlip. balance. In other words, tlio question was whether the estate duty was a testamentary expense and ■. therefore deductible beforo assessing duty'under the old' Act. It docs not seem'unreasonable that tho estate duty ■ should ,bo payable upon: the whole estate, and thereforo Clause 11. as it originally stood, is- not objected to. It was -found, however, that tlio 'Same provision bad not been made with regard to succession duty—that is to ' say, that'the Act' did not provide that succession duty should be payable upon the whole amount to which a particular successor succeeded without first deducting -the' succession duty. In order to remedy this, the Act was amended by lite ,1911 Act by the insertion of tho words "or the value of any succession" after tho word "deceased" in tho first.' liiio of Section 11. It clear that tho intention was to. provide that estate duty should not, bo deducted in assessing estate duty, and that succession duty should not bo deducted in assessing succession duty;. hut the , amendment has evidently boon hastily made, and the section therefore reads ■ to moan that the estate duty shall not he deducted in assessing either the es- ' tat-e duty or tho succession duty. Tlio effect of this is that the beneficiaries, having suffered tlio deduction of tho es- •, ta to duty, aro called .npon to pay succession duty upon tho amouiit of tho estate dutv, in tho same way as if the • estate duty had been distributed amongst tho beneficiarios. The undoubted -intention was that tho two parts of the Act and tho amendment should have been distributive. ■ Tho result is that in the caso of ono estate which we' havo just put through the successors had to pay succession duty ■upon £23,265 which had been paid to tho Government as estate duty. Tlio matter.,was brought, before tho Minister by letter, dated August 23, but so far no reply, except the usual acknowledgment, has been'received."" Tho Hon. H. D. BELL asked tho honourable member to repeat his question, next week, because ho was not satisfied with tho official answer supplied to him. He thought'it would bo better to defer his answer until lie could consult with the Minister of Financo about the admirably expressed memorandum on the subject. Tho question was postponed accordingly. . ' . FIRST REA.DINCS. The Victoria Collego Amendment Bill, tho Canterbury Collego Amendment Bill, and tho Stallions Bill, all in tho narao. of tho Hon. H. D. 8011, were read a first, time."

The Council rose at-2.40 p.m.