APPEAL DISMISSED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22084, 14 October 1933, Page 11

APPEAL DISMISSED

A NEW ZEALAND CASE LONDON, October 12. The Privy Council dismissed the New Zealand appeal of Gould and others versus the Commissioner of Stamp Duties. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council on July 15 reserved judgment in the suit of Gould and others versus the Commissioner of Stamp Duties in New Zealand. The plaintiffs were George Gould, Herbert Elworthy, and George Ranald Macdonald, as trustees of the estate of Ranald Macintosh Macdonald, who died at Christchurch on October 21, 1928, leaving an estate the final balance of which was fixed for death duties at £337,317. The question was whether a deed of settlement duly executed by the settler 15 years ago, upon which gift duty was duly paid, and under which the beneficiaries entered into the enjoyment of income and paid income tax, could be treated as nugatory on behalf of the Commissioner of Stamp Duties because the settled fund still remained vested in the settlor at the time of his death, as the securities representing the same had never been transferred. At the hearing before the New Zealand Full Court, counsel for plaintiffs contended that, although transfers were made in the books of the settlor transferring from his capital account to the accounts of the various beneficiaries the amounts given them, the securities which represented the settled fund were never actually transferred to the trustees of the settlement, but remained in the name of the settlor till the time of his death. It was contended for plaintiffs that, despite the fact that there had been an actual appropriation of securities to the settlement on Mr Macdonald’s death, the Commissioner of Stamp Duties sought to include the settled fund in the estate of the settlor and assess duty thereon, on the ground that the settlement had never been carried into effect. The Solicitor-general, for the Commissioner of Stamp Duties, submitted that the trust fund must.be liable for payment of death duties, as neither the trustees nor the beneficiaries had assumed possession and enjoyment of the trust fund three years before the death of the settlor. The trust had not been validly created, as legal interest in the trust fund had not been transferred to the trustees.