TAXATION POINT

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 61, 9 September 1937, Page 11

TAXATION POINT

COMMISSIONER SUCCEEDS

HUNTER ESTATE

Judgment in favour of the respondent, the Commissioner of Taxes, was given today in a reserved decision o£ Mr. Justice Smith in the Supreme Court, the unsuccessful appellants being Cyril Paul Hunter, of Akitio.. and Thomas Percy Hunter, of Porangahau, who were acting in their' positions of trustees of the Sir George Hunter estate, from which positions a recentlygiven judgment of the Supreme Court indicates they are to be removed. .. The appellants brought before the Court by way of a case stated an appeal from the decision of the Commissioner that a dwelling-house on the Porangahau sheep station of the late Sir George Hunter did not constitute premises upon which an allowance could be made for depreciation, under the Land and Income Tax Act. :The facts showed that the dwellinghouse on the sheep station had not, since the death of the late Sir George Hunter v been occupied by any person who took any part in the business of sheep farming carried. on upon the sheep station. On .the other hand, the dwelling-house remained part of the testator's estate under the control of the trustees. The test which his Honour had held should be applied to determine whether this dwelling-house was entitled to . an. allowance for depreciation was whether there had been, in a business sense, something more I than a 'temporary cessation of the actual use of the house for the purpose of producing assessable income. As the testator's house had never been used since his death in 1930 to house anyone engaged in sheep-farm-ing operations, the Judge thought there was evidence from which the Commissioner could draw the conclusion which he did, which involved the view that the trustees were not holding the house during the years ended June 30, 1934, and June 30, 1935, for the purpose of using it in the ordinary course of the sheep-farming operations which they were carrying on: Judgment was accordingly given for the respondent, for whom Mr. C. H. Taylor appeared, with £12. 12s costs against the appellants, for v/hom Mr. C. H. Weston, K.C., and Mr. J. H. Dunn appeared. ,