CHARITABLE TRUST

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21823, 20 September 1945, Page 3

CHARITABLE TRUST

EXEMPTION FROM DUTY WILL CASE DECISION (P.A.) NEW PLYMOUTH, Sept. 20. Finding that a bequest to the New Plymouth Borough Council without a specified object is a charitable trust and is therefore exempt from succession duty, Mr. Justice Fair in a reserved judgment given at the New Plymouth Supreme Court answered a question of considerable interest and of importance to local authorities. It is the first time the point has been decided in New Zealand. The proceedings arose out of the will of Miss Clarice Allan Douglas. She made other bequests to the New Plymouth Borough Council, but this was the only one in which no object was named and the Commissioner of Taxes ruling that the gift was not a charity within the meaning of the Death Duties Act, 1921, sought to collect succession duty totalling £lB9. It was against this that the administrators of the estate appealed. After making a number of bequests to the borough council for specific purposes, as well as charitable gifts and private legacies, the will directed that the residue of the estate should be disposed of in proportions of one-half to the Methodist Home and Maori Mission department, one-quarter to the Women’s Christian Temperance Union at New Plymouth, and one-quarter to the “the Corporation and Borough of New Plymouth.” That was the sole direction retarding the borough’s share in the residue. The judgment said the question was whether a shai'e- of the residue was thus “properly left by the will of the deceased and held on any charitable trust in New Zealand.” His Honour held that it was a charitable trust and was exempt from succession duty.