INTERESTING WILL CASE.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 March 1916, Page 2

INTERESTING WILL CASE.

CHARGE OF AVOIDING GIFT DUTY, By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Yesterday. The Supreme Court was engaged to-day hearing a case in ■ which the Crown is suing the executors of the estate of the late Jessie Begg, of Dunedin, for dCWII, together with interest, amounting to £340. The Solicitor-Generad stated that since the write was issued, defend' ants had paid the sum of £209 14s »d, which had to be deducted from the amount of the claim. ■ Deceased died in January, 1914, leaving an estate valued at between £SOOO and £OOOO. In IDOS, according to 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 her death she owned none of those shares. The Crown contended that she had given away her whole interest in the company to her six children, reserving to herself an annuity o£ £SOO a year, and that the method adopted was adopted for the purpose ef avoiding tho 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 witli the gift of shares, and that the shares are not of the value alleged by the Ciewn.