VALUE OF SHARES

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 69, 14 December 1932, Page 7

VALUE OF SHARES

Death Duty Assessment AN APPEAL DISMISSED The question of death duties payable on shares in a New Zealand company having English and New Zealand share registers, was decided in the Supreme Court yesterday. The shares in question were on the English register, the values of which at the time of death were higher than the New Zealand values. His Honour decided that the death duties were payable on the English values.

The shares were part of the estate of the late Mr. John Klrkcaldle, who died in October, 1925, and comprised £4608 preferred stock and £6495/10/ordlnary stock in the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, Ltd. The shares were valued at the time of death by a local sharebroker on the market value of the stock tn New Zealand, which was £7B per share for preferred shares, and £92 for ordinary. The valuation was accepted by the Commissioner of Stamp Duties as correct and the duty was paid. The shares being on the English register, death duty was paid in England on an administration of the estate situated there. Under the Act the administrators of the deceased, Mary Ann Kirkcaldie and others, applied to the Commissioner of Stamp Duties for a refund. It then came to the notice of the Commissioner that the market price in England of the preferred shares was £B4, and for ordinary shares £93, and he claimed that the duty in New Zealand should have been assessed on'the English value, and sought to make a further assessment. It was against,the further assessment that the administrators of the estate appealed.

His Honour said that what had to be ascertained was the actual value, and therefore, although under certain circumstances a lower value could fairly be put upon the property, if it could be shown that under different circumstances a better price could be obtained, the Commissioner was entitled to assess at the higher value. It was unnecessary to determine whether, if the shares had been on the New Zealand register, the Commissioner could claim to value them at the market price in England, as other considerations might apply. In the present case, the shares being on the English register, the Commissioner was justified in assessing the value at the market price in England. The appeal would be dismissed with costs £lO/10/-.

Sir. E. K. Kirkcaldie appeared for the appellants, and Mr. C. H. Taylor for the Commissioner of Stamp Duties.