THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1910. DEATH DUTIES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10084, 3 September 1910, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1910. DEATH DUTIES.

Mr Harold Bcauchamp, Chairman of Directors of the Bank of New Zealand, made some scathing remarks recently concerning the operations of the Death Duties Act. He alleged that the Act was compelling 'capital to seek investment elsewhere. This statement, coming as it did from a nominee of the Government on the Board of Directors, created consternation in political circles, and the Hon. Dr. Findlay, who is an adept at special pleading, was allotted the task of demolishing the pessimistic utterances. Mr Beauchamp, however, is not to be silenced by either bounae or threat. In an interview with the Auckland Herald, he said:

—"The figures given by me instead of being an exaggeration, are really less than the Act imposes. The illustration I gave was an estate of £40,000. On looking more carefully nto the Act, I find that on such an ;statc the amount payable for estate luty alone would amount to S per ;ent., and, in addition, a furtjher charge is imposed in the shape of succession duty, amounting to 2 per sent, in the case, of a wife, child, or ;ra.ndchild, and from 2 to 10 per ent. in other classes of inheritants ip to £20,000, making a total sucession duty of from 3 to 15 per ent., varying with these classes of ' lhoritants. It will thus be seen , liat on an estate of £40,000 the to- ; il amount of death duty by a wife, j ■ liid, or grandchild would. amQUnfc j

to from 11 to 23 per. cent., and this on an estate of £40,000 only. -As the amount of the estate duty is on a sliding-scale, these percentages would increase in proportion to the J excess in value of an estate over £40,000, at the rate of one-third on every £SOOO over £25,000 until such estate duty reaches 15 per cent., which' is the maximum prescribed by the Act. This makes the maximum amount of duty finder the Act 35 Iper cent., not 18 per cent., as stated by the Attorney-General."