DEATH DUTY CASE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 88, 20 March 1916, Page 4

DEATH DUTY CASE.

TAX COMMISSIONER FAILS. Per Press Association. Wellington, March 18. In the Supreme Court Mr Justice Chapman gave judgment in the case of the Commissioner of Stamps against Alexander Begg and Charles Begg, executors of the will of Jessie Begg of Dunedin, a claim to recover £6Bll los 6d and interest alleged to be payable as duty in respect of the estate of testatrix, less £309 14s 9d since paid by the executors. The sum claimed was the duty upon £68,117 13s 10d, alleged to be the value of some shares in the company called Charles Begg and Co., Ltd., which the Commissioner asserted formed part of the estate of testatrix as defined by the Death Duties Act, 1909. Long before her death Mrs Begg transferred her shares in the company to her children, and the latter decided to grant her an an-

nuity. ' His Honor said if the annunity was binding upon the children or any of them, this was- because the grant of it induced by resolution was really part of the same transaction as the gift. The circumstances on which the commissioner relied was that the annuity was finally made and that it therefore became a consideration for the gift, which took effect when the allotment was made and shares were issued pursuant to it. His Honor dissented at length from that view and expressed the belief that Mrs ■ Begg evinced no actual intention of i accepting an annuity. ' { Judgment was given for defendant, ■ ' with costs according to scale.