The Finance (1909-10) Act 1910, section 58, enacts-‘(1) Any legacy or succession duty which under the . . Succession Duty Act 1853 or any other Act . . is payable at the rate of 5 per cent. or 6 per cent. shall be payable at the rate of 10 per cent. on the amount or value of the legacy or succession. . . (4) This section shall take effect in the case of legacy duty only where the testator by whose will the legacy is given . . dies on or after the 30th day of April 1909 . . and, in the case of a succession arising under a disposition, only if the first succession under the disposition arises on or after that date.’
A testator who was beneficially entitled to certain heritable property in fee, subject to the liferent interest of his mother, died in 1900, leaving a testamentary disposition by which he disponed his estate to his mother in liferent and to a cousin in fee. The liferentrix died in 1910, and thereupon the cousin became entitled to the property, and succession duty became payable upon it.
Held (aff. the judgment of the First Division) that for the purposes of section 58 (4) of the Act of 1910 the succession to the property arose on the testator’s death in 1900, and that accordingly the rate of succession duty payable by his cousin was only 5 per cent.
Judges:
Viscount Cave, Viscount Finlay, Lord Dunedin, Lord Shaw, and Lord Sumner
Citations:
[1924] UKHL 482, 61 SLR 482
Links:
Jurisdiction:
Scotland
Inheritance Tax
Updated: 14 June 2022; Ref: scu.631556