AIRMAN’S’ ESTATE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26349, 2 January 1947, Page 4

AIRMAN’S’ ESTATE

DEATH DUTY “PLUNDER” COMMENT ON PENAL RATE The manner in which the estate of a young fighter pilot, killed in action, was “ plundered for death duties ” has been described by the airman's father, . who was executor, of his son’s estate. The officer concerned was killed in action in December, 1944, but it was not until September, 1945 (says the New Zealand Herald),' that he was officially presumed dead. For the purpose of settling his estate,’ a statement of accounts had to be obtained through the Air Department from the Air Ministry in England, and these details were not available until last July. In spite of the fact that delays were solely attributable to war conditions, the young pilot’s estate, which was willed to his younger brother and two sisters, was assessed for death duty, with the penal rate of 5 per cent, calculated from a date six months earlier than that on which death had been presumed. * “I feel strongly about the whole matter,” said the dead airman’s father. “My son was not a spendthrift. He had accumulated balances in pay amounting to £IOOO with a view to ’’his own rehabilitation after the war. The balance of his taxable estate consisted of two insurance policies, which he had kept alive out of his service pay, and his own bank savings. “ That a boy who died in the service of his country should have his estate plundered for death duty is bad enough. That the penal rate should be extorted when an early settlement was impossible is sheer wickedness.” A friend of the young fighter pilot had a more terse comment to offer. There was an offence, he said, for which a soldier could be shot on the battlefield. It was the crime of robbing the dead.