DEATH DUTIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 31, 5 August 1943, Page 6

DEATH DUTIES

AN IMPORTANT JUDGMENT

Contributions to a superannuation fund paid subsequently to a widow are liable for death duties, according to a judgment delivered in the Supreme,! Court by Mr. Justice Johnston. Because of the deceased's status as a civil servant, the. question involved affected civil servants and Government evctr ployees, and possibly a large number of the local body and municipal employees, said: the reserved judgment. The case was one in which the Public Trustee, as administrator for the estate of James Alexander Henry, Napier, former inspector of schools, appealed against the inclusion by the Commissioner of Stamp Duties in bis computation of the dutiable estate of £781 9s 2d,, representing the amount of deceased's contributions to a superannuation fund and' paid to his widow, and £24 15s 3d, the Value. of an allowance payable for deceased's child u&der 14 years of age. The Public Trustee's contention was that the benefits;!roni':,the"rfund were not purchased or provided by the deceased either by himself alone, or in concert or by arrangement with any other person, and that they were not attracted into the dutiable estate. The Commissioner of Stamp Duties claimed that the contributions constituted an- interest purchased or provided by deceased within the meaning of section 5 (1) (g) of the Death Duties Act, 1921, and were properly included in the dutiable estate.

In the course of a lengthy judgment his Honour held that, although the contributions to the superannuation fund were compulsory and a condition of employment, nevertheless the deceased must be deemed to have agreed to make his contribution to the fund, and. therefore, had provided for the annuity or capital sum payable to his widow on his death under the, provisions of section .85. That being so, the capital value of the annuity payable to his widow or the sum received by her became part of his dutiable estate.

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