WHEN DUTY IS PAYABLE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 32, 15 October 1912, Page 8

WHEN DUTY IS PAYABLE

■ '■■"♦' i ■• WHAT IS A GIFT? "What is a gift legally?"— This question has been before the Courts more than once ; but, since its answer de-^ pends upon tho interpretation of a late amendment of the Death Duties Act, it came before the Court of Appeal again to-day. On the Bench Were : The Chief Justice, Mr. Justice Dennieton, Mr. Justice Edwards, Mr. , Justice Cooper, Mr. Justice Chapman. The ca4e was that of tho Commissioner of Stamps against Jarmea George Finch, of Oamaru. The Solicitor-General (Mr. J. W. Salmond) appeared for the Commissioner of Stamps, and Mr. A. S. Adame, of Dunedin, for the respondent. In opening the case, tho SolicitorGeneral eaid that the appeal was from the judgment of Sir Joshua Williams, deciding that a certain memorandum of transfer was not liable to gift duty under the Gift Duties Act. The ca«e depended entirely upon the construction of section 9 of tho Death Duties Amendment Act, 1911. Gifts up to .£IOOO in apy year Were, exempt altogether from gift duty. In this case Mr. Finch possessed certain land, of which the equity of redemption was worth £2182. He desired to give it to his. two sons, and he executed a memorandum of transfer . vesting in - them an undivided moiety of, the land., for a > payment of £100. The Commissioner of Stamps assessed the memorandum a« being liable to gift duty at the rate of .6 per cent, on , the value of the equity of redemption of the whole of* the landviz., £2182. On a case stated by the Commissioner of Stampe, Sir Joshua Williams held that the- £IOO must be deducted from the value of the moiety (£1091) j and, as this deduction would bring the value below £1000, no duty was- payable. (Proceeding.)