DEATH DUTIES

Hokitika Guardian, 26 August 1938, Page 6

DEATH DUTIES

A SUCCESSFUL APPEAL,

(Per Press Association—Copyright)

CHRISTCHURCH, Aug. 2o

The valuation ofjpart of an estate for tho purposes of taxation fqr death ' dutifes'in adcofflaiice With a mortgage j reduction made by a Mortgage Adjustment Commission, after, the death ; of.'tlie : testatrix, was allowed' by~- Mi- ■ Justice Northcroft in the Supreme ; CouM, in his decision on a case that was heard on Wednesday. The appellants in the - case were Richard 1 .Bohun‘ Cotton and Rita-Viola Leslie, [the administrators of the estate of’ ;Eil2abeth Richards, who died on November 6th, 1936, and the respondent [."Was the Commissioner of Stamp’

[Duties. '• ' ■' "■ _ . '' 1 ■/; The judgment stated that, among 'the. assets of the estate, was a set'.oiifl mortgage owing to the testatrix ! to secure £17,840, on which interest had accrued amounting ’ to £3,096 7s 4d. The respondent, the Commissioner of; Stamp Duties in assessing for death’ duties, had valued the mortgage and interest at'£2o,ol9 2s '3d, an amount, which, ■’ he. expected, would ho fixed by the Adjustment Commission. At a later date,. the' respondent offered as a’ compromise,' to .accept- valuation at' the principal sum of £17,840, and to eliminate the amount!] of * accrued ■ '. /"/

Neither of these valuations was acceptable: to the appellants, who claimed that ’ the . assets could not be of greater value, than the sum at which it should*be Adjusted; . , . .

1 “In the tfieantime, and before the stamp accounts were filed,” states the judgment,..'the mortgagor had made application" -[under the Mortgagor's and Lessees Rehabilitation Act, and, as a result, the Adjustment Commission, eventually, adjusted the indebtedness of the mortgagor to the , ap-.. nellants, •as at the date of death, at £14,649 17s Id. The appellant’s claim, therefore, that this figure represents., the actual value of the mortgage at the date, of death. Tile respondent*, resists this view, on the ground that, bv Section 71 o'f the Death Duties Act, 1921, the value of the mortgage is to be ascertained by him in such a lnaiL ner a.s lie thinks fit.- He claims that; in valuing the mortgage, as at the date of death, lie was hot required to do more than to take into account and to consider the possible effect' noon the value of the- mortgage of the future report of the Adjustment Commission.”

After referring to legal nuotedbv Counsel.' the judgment c.oni eludes: “Tlie qiiestioiv for determination is :as to whether the mortgage debt, was prooerlv valued bv the respondent at £20,019 2s fid, or at: £17,840. and. if not/ what was' the correct, valuation. T am of the opinion that neither of. these figures was the . jmicfo „ ,nrn>. Anlvftrmtf. correct valuation of the mortgage. but, that its true 1 value- Was the Sum fixed by fbp Adinstment Commission, namely;. £14.640 17s Irl.”