INTERESTING WILL CASE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 72, 1 March 1916, Page 2

INTERESTING WILL CASE.

CHARGE OF AVOIDING GIFT DUTY Peb Press association. Wellington, February 29. The Supreme Court was engaged today hearing a case in which the Crown ;s suing the executors of the estate ol me late Jessie Begg, of Dunedin, for £6Bll, together with interest, amounting to £.llO. The Solicitor-General stated that since the writ was issued, defendants had paid the sum of £209 Us 9d, which had to be deducted from die amount of the claim. Deceased died in January, 1911, leaving an estate valued at between goOOO and £6OOO. In 1908, according co counsel, she was possessed of very considerable money. She was by far the largest shareholder in the company of Charles Begg and Co., Ltd. At aer death khe owned none of those shares. The Crown contended that she had given away her whole interest in the company to' her six children, icserving to herself an annuity of £SOO a year, and that The method adopted was adopted for the purpose of avoiding the payment of gift duty upon the property transferred. > The defence is that' the shares held by Mrs Begg were held' as trustee for her children, and that the annuity had nothing to do with the gift of shares, and that the shares are' .not of the value alleged by the Crown.