TAX LIABILITY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 249, 21 October 1933, Page 11

TAX LIABILITY.

GREENWOOD ESTATE. APPEAL COURT DECISION. TO PAY EMERGENCY CHARGE. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Friday. Judgment was given by the Court of Appeal to-day on thc t question whether the estate of a deceased person was subject to the emergency unemployment charge £.11 d, the annual levy imposed by the. Unemployment Amendment Acts of 1931 and 1932. The appellants were tlie trustees of the estate of George Dean Greenwood, sheepfariner, who died on August 28. 1932, leaving large estates at Tei'votdale, near Amberlcy. This appeal was from the judgment of Mr. Justice Ostler on an originating summons submitting certain questions which arose under the Unemployment Amendment Acts, 1931. Appellants, as executors of the estate, asked first for a declaration that they were not liable for payment of the emergency unemployment charge imposed by those Acts, claimed to be due 011 November 1, 1932, and on April 1, 1933, in respect of the. income other than salary or wages of deceased during tho year ended March 31, 1932: Mr. Justice Ostler had answered this question against appellants and that answer was upheld by the Court of Appeal this morning. The Court, however, held that appellants were not liable for tho instalments of the tax claimed to be due on tho first days of November, 1932, and February, 1933, and varied the judgment of the Court below accordingly. As appellants had been partly successful they were awarded costs. , Oh this question, the Chief Sir Michael Myers, in allowing 15 guineas, said that leading counsel had appeared in tho case, but he not only did not condescend to address the Court, but had not even explained his omission to do so. Such conduct was not respectful to the Bench and not consistent with the dignity of the Bar. The amount of costs awarded was affected by this fact. At the hearing of the appeal it was stated that during the year ended February 28, 1932, the late Mr. Greenwood derived an income other than salary and wages of £25,663, the unemployment charge thereon being duly paid. 011 May 21 and 011 August 4 the testator paid quarterly instalments of tlie annual charge of 20/. The executor* claimed that all liability to pay further instalments ceased on the death of the testator on August 28, 1932. The Crown contended that the executors were liable to pay both +lie quarterly instalments of the annual charge of 20/ that would have been payable by testator in November, 1932, and-in February, 1933, had he lived, and also the unemployment emergency charge on income received by the testator from April"! until August 29, 1932, the date of his death. The contentions of the Crown were disputed by the appellants oil the grounds that the charge was purely a personal and could be collected only from persons who remained alive when any instalment became due. The trustees, wjth the consent of the Crown, applied to the Court by originating summons to have the question determined. Mr. Justice Ostler, the trial judge, held with some hesitation that the estate was liable for both the annual levy and the charge 011 income. It was from this decision that the trustees appealed.