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taxing leasehold property.(d) There are also specially incorporated into it the provisions of the 36 Geo. III. c. 52 which relate (e)— 1. To the mode of paying duty on gifts by way of annuity.(ƒ) 2. To money to be laid out in the purchase of an annuity.(g) 3. To legacies whose value can only be ascertained by application of the allotted fund.(h)

4. To legacies to be enjoyed by different persons in succession, or having partial interests therein.(i)

5. To the persons by whom the duty in such cases is to be paid.(j)

6. To the mode of charging duty on unproductive articles to be enjoyed in specie.(k)

7. To gifts satisfied otherwise than in money.()

311. Object of Act.--The object of the Act is to impose upon real property and personal property conveyed by deed other than a will accruing to any person by reason of death, the same liability to duty which the Legacy Duty Acts had previously imposed upon personal property derived under a will or intestacy.

312. What is "Real Property" within the Act.—The term real property includes all freehold, copyhold(m), customary, leasehold, and hereditaments, and heritable property, whether corporeal or incorporeal (n), in Great Britain and Ireland, except money secured on heritable property in Scotland, and all estates in any such hereditaments.(o)

Previous to the passing of the Succession Duty Act, leasehold property was subject to the operation of the Legacy Duty Acts, but the former Act expressly exempts such property from legacy duty, and makes it chargeable with succession duty in the same way as heritable estates.(p)

Formerly, money secured on heritable property in Scotland was considered heritable, but by an Act passed on 31st December, 1868 (q), all heritable securities are made moveable property (whether they shall have been granted before or after that date),

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so as to devolve to the personal representatives of the deceased owner, except where they are expressly conceived in favour of heirs excluding executors.

313. What is “Personal Property" within the Act.-The term personal property does not include leaseholds, but includes money payable under any engagement, and money secured on heritable property in Scotland, and all other property not comprised in the preceding definitions of "real property."(r)

The term "money payable under any engagement" includes an annuity under a deed, also money secured by bond. (s)

Within the Act, the term property includes real and personal property.(t)

The liability to duty on personal property is governed by the domicile of the owner at the time of death. Consequently the whole personal property of a person dying domiciled within the United Kingdom is liable to duty, wherever such property may be actually situated at the time of death; and conversely, the personal property of a person dying domiciled out of the United Kingdom is not liable to duty, though the property be situated in this country at the time of his death.(u)

314. What the term "Succession" denotes.-This term denotes "any property chargeable with duty" under the Act(v)— i.e., the actual property to which the successor is entitled, not the mere act of succeeding to it. This distinction between property and succession must be kept in view in reading the Act. The Act imposes a duty on a succession; so property, by passing inter vivos, may under it escape the duty altogether.(w)

A succession is created in the case of a disposition or will as soon as it takes effect, and in the case of intestacy, at the death of the intestate; and the liability of the successon to duty attaches immediately upon its being created, although the duty is not actually payable until the succession falls into possession.(x)

The property chargeable with duty under the Legacy Duty Acts is exempt from Succession Duty, consequently a legacy is not a succession.(y)

(r) 16 & 17 Vict. c. 51, § 1.
(s) Hanson, p. 227.

(t) 16 & 17 Vict. c. 51, § 1.
(u) Hanson, pp. 67, 219.
(v) 16 & 17 Vict. c. 51, § 1.

(w) Hanson, p. 228. But see § 15 of 16 & 17 Vict. c. 51, and § 38 of 44 Vict. c. 12.

(x) 16 & 17 Vict. c. 52, § 20.
(y) 16 & 17 Vict. c. 51, § 1.

315. What Dispositions and Devolutions of Property confer Succession. The words of the Act are(2):

Every past or future disposition of property, by reason whereof any person has or shall become beneficially entitled to any property, or the income thereof, upon the death of any person dying after the 19th day of May, 1853, either immediately or after any interval, either certainly or contingently, and either originally or by way of substitutive limitation; and every devolution by law of any beneficial interest in property, or the income thereof, upon the death of any person dying after the 19th day of May, 1853, to any other person, in possession or expectancy, shall be deemed to have conferred or to confer on the person entitled by reason of any such disposition, or devolution, a "succession": and the term "successor" shall denote the person so entitled; and the term "predecessor' shall denote the settlor, disponer, testator, obligor, ancestor, or other person from whom the interest of the successor is or shall be derived.

This section of the Act, it will be seen, divides property into two classes—viz., that which is acquired by " disposition" and that which is acquired by " devolution by law.”

Under a disposition is included every interest acquired in property by means of any act, inter vivos or testamentary of the owner, and which interest is so limited as to accrue either in point of right or of possession upon a death taking place after 19th May, 1853.

Under a devolution by law is included every transmission by act of law of the interest of any owner dying after 19th May, 1853, to his real or personal representative.(a)

The part of the section which relates to devolutions by law is not retrospective, but the part which relates to successions by dispositions is so.

The term disposition, as here used, must be taken to signify every act or obligation other than by way of sale, whereby one person confers on another any beneficial interest in property or the income thereof. Cases of bond fide sale are expressly exempted from the operation of the Act(b), and so also, in certain cases, are "Bonds or Contracts for valuable consideration in money or money's worth."(c)

A person succeeding under an entail is held to derive his title

(z) 16 & 17 Vict. c. 51, § 2. (a) Hanson, p. 228.

(b) 16 & 17 Vict. c. 57, § 7.
(c) Ibid. § 17.

by devolution from his immediate ancestor(d), except where called nominatim, when he is held to take by disposition from the maker of the entail.(e)

Under the Act successions are conferred in the following

cases:

1. By any person taking by survivorship any beneficial interest in any property held jointly. But there is no succession by survivorship as between husband and wife.(ƒ)

2. By general powers of appointment when executed.(g)

3. By the extinction of any charge, estate, or interest determinable by the death of any person, or at any period ascertainable only by reference to death, such as terce, annuities, and other burdens; also the increase either of income or of capital at the ending of the burdens.(h)

4. By dispositions, not being bond fide sales, and not conferring an interest expectant on death on the person in whose favour the same is made, accompanied by the reservation of a benefit to the granter, &c.(i)

5. By dispositions to take effect at periods dependent on death, or made with an engagement, secret trust, or arrangement, or made for evading duty.(j)

But persons who on 19th May, 1853, were entitled to heritable. property, subject to leases for life, are not liable to duty in the event of the leases determining in their lifetime(k); and a succession derived from more predecessors than one, the proportional interest not being distinguishable, shall be deemed to be derived equally from each predecessor, unless an agreement be made with the commissioners.()

316. Rates of Duty.-The following duties are levied in respect of every succession chargeable under the Act, according to the value thereof, viz. :

Lineal issue or lineal ancestor of the predecessor, £1 per cent. (m) Brothers and sisters of the predecessor, and their

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Brothers and sisters of the father or mother of the

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predecessor, and their descendants, Brothers and sisters of a grandfather or grandmother of the predecessor, and their descendants,

Any other person,

£5 per cent.

£6 do.

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£10 do.

The husband or wife of the predecessor is not chargeable with duty, and a successor whose husband or wife is of nearer relationship to the predecessor, is chargeable with duty at the lower rate.

317. Mode of Calculating the Duty.-As already mentioned (n), the mode of calculating the legacy duty is regulated by the provisions of the 36 Geo. III. c. 52, which are by 45 Geo. III. c. 28(0), made applicable to legacies and shares of money arising out of heritable estate.

These provisions now apply for the most part to the duty imposed by the Succession Duty Act upon successions in personal property.(p)

Following the order of the summary of the rules already given with regard to legacy duty (9), the rules with regard to the calculation of the duties on successions may be stated as follows(r)

1. Immediate Gifts of Capital.-The value of the succession is to be calculated without regard to any contingency which might pass the property to some other person; but in the event of the same so passing from the successor by the happening of the contingency, any duty which may appear to have been overpaid is to be returned to him.(s) The duty is to be paid all at once.

2. Gifts by way of Annuity.-The duty is to be charged only on the value of the annuitant's interest, calculated according to the tables annexed to the Succession Duty Act, and payable at the times, in the manner and subject to the rules already stated under this heading.(t)

3. Gifts to Several Persons in Succession.-If the several persons succeeding to the personal property be all chargeable with the same rate of duty, the whole duty is payable at once for the whole property; but if they are liable to different rates, the duty

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