GIFT DUTY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 51, 29 February 1916, Page 2

GIFT DUTY.

, . , AX ALLEfIEI) EVASION. ■ {By Association.) JU - ; ' AYELMXGTOX, this day. Tlic Supreme Court m engaged to-day hearing a case in which the Crown is suing the executors or the estate of the late Jessia Bcgg, of Dunedin, for £6811, together with interest amounting to £340. The Solicitor-General stated that eince the writ was ieeuod defendants had' paid the sum of £209 14/9, -uriiich had to be deducted from the amount of the claim. Deceased died in January, 1014. leaving an estate', valued at between £5000 and £GOOO. In 1908, according to counsel, she was possessed of very considerable money; ehe was by far the largest shareholder in the company of Charles Begg and Co., Ltd. At her death she owned none of these shares. (J The Crown con ; tended that ehc had given away her whole interest in the company to her six children, reserving to herself ixn annuity of £500 a year, an.l that the method adopted was adopted for the purpoec of avoiding payment of gi/t Juty upon fche property transferred. The defence is that the shares held by Mrs. Begg were heldi as by a truetee for her children; that the annuity "had nothing'to do with the gift of shares; and that the shares are not of the value alleged by tlie Crown. The case is proceeding.