The deceased died intestate and with a negative valued personal estate, but with assets in trusts, including a revocable life interest in property. The question was whether his debts could be set off against the trusts interests to reduce them below the limit.
Held: The literal approach in Cape Brandy had now been superceded by a purposive interpretation of taxation statutes as in McGuckian, and ‘there is nothing inherently illogical or contrary to that purpose in allowing personal liabilities to be used to reduce the overall (aggregated) estate because it might be said that that is consistent with the aggregation mechanism that Parliament chose. The statute has created its own logical world by deeming trust property to be owned by the deceased. ‘ Nevertheless, the court was bound by Re Barnes, and the debts could not be set off.
Judges:
Mann J
Citations:
[2005] EWHC 14 (Ch), [2005] 1 WLR 1772
Links:
Statutes:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Cape Brandy Syndicate v Inland Revenue Commissioners CA 1921
Rowlatt J said: ‘In a taxing Act one has to look merely at what is clearly said. There is no room for any intendment. There is no equity about a tax. There is no presumption as to a tax. Nothing is to be read in, nothing is to be implied’ and . .
Cited – Commissioners of Inland Revenue v McGuckian HL 21-May-1997
Steps which had been inserted into a commercial transaction, but which had no purpose other than the saving of tax are to be disregarded when assessing the tax effect of the scheme. The modern approach to statutory construction is to have regard to . .
Cited – Re Barnes 1939
A gift was made within three years of death. Under estate duty law it fell to be treated as property passing on the death. The deceased’s estate was heavily insolvent with a deficit of over andpound;90,000 and the executrix claimed that the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Inheritance Tax
Updated: 27 September 2022; Ref: scu.220992
