DEATH DUTY.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 March 1916, Page 2

DEATH DUTY.

TAX COMMISSIONER FAILS. - By Telegraph.—Press Association'. Wellington, March 18. In the Supreme Court Mr. Justice Chapman give judgment in the case of tlio Commissioner of Stamps against Alexander Begg and Charles Begg, executors of the will of Jessie Begg, of Dunedin, a claim to recover £6Bll 15s «<l 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 fhe duty upon £68,117 13s lOd, alleged to be the value t>f some shares in the sompany called Charles Begg and Co., Ltd., which the Commissioner asserted formed part of the estate of testatrix as defined by the Death Duties Act. 1003. Long before her death Mrs. Begg transferred her shares in the company to her children, and the latter decided to grant her an annuity. His Honor said if the annunity wag 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 oii 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 Mi's. Begg evinced'no actual intention of accepting an annuity. Judgment was given for defendant, with costs according to scale.