swarb.co.uk - law index
These cases are from the lawindexpro database. They are now being transferred to the swarb.co.uk website in a better form. As a case is published there, an entry here will link to it. The swarb.co.uk site includes many later cases. Â
Stamp Duty - From: 1900 To: 1929
This page lists 4 cases, and was prepared on 02 April 2018.
ÂCommissioners of Inland Revenue v Muller and Co Margarine [1901] AC 217
1901
HL
Lord Macnaghten, Lord Lindley, Lord Robertson
Commercial, Intellectual Property, Stamp Duty
The House considered the liability, or not, to stamp duty of an agreement made in the UK. Under the Stamp Act 1891 an agreement made in the UK for the sale of any estate or interest in any property except lands or property locally situate out of the UK was chargeable with ad valorem stamp duty. The particular agreement was for the sale of the premises of a wholesale manufacturing business which was carried on in Germany together with the goodwill of the business, all of whose customers were in Germany. Held: The goodwill was property locally situate outside the UK. Lord Macnaghten said: "It is very difficult, as it seems to me, to say that goodwill is not property. Goodwill is bought and sold every day. It may be acquired, I think, in any of the different ways in which property is usually acquired. When a man has got it he may keep it as his own. He may vindicate his exclusive right to it if necessary by process of law. He may dispose of it if he will - of course under the conditions attaching to property of that nature." and
"What is goodwill? It is a thing very easy to describe, very difficult to define. It is the benefit and advantage of a good name, reputation, and connection of business. It is the attractive force which brings in custom. It is the one thing which distinguishes an old established business from a new business at its first start. The goodwill of a business must emanate from a particular centre or source. However widely extended or diffused its influence may be, goodwill is worth nothing unless it has a power of attraction sufficient to bring customers home to the source from which it emanates. Goodwill is composed of a variety of elements. It differs in its composition in different trades and in different businesses in the same trade.”
Lord Lindley said: "Goodwill regarded as property has no meaning except in connection with some trade, business, or calling. In that connection, I understand the word to include whatever adds value to the business by reason of the situation, name and reputation, connection, introduction to old customers, and agreed absence from competition, or any of these things, and there may be others which do not occur to me. In this wide sense, goodwill is inseparable from the business to which it adds value, and, in my opinion, exists where the business is carried on. Such business may be carried on in one place or country or in several, and if in several there may be several businesses, each having a goodwill of its own."
Lord Robertson said: "I do not accede to the view that the goodwill is affixed or attached to the manufactory. Supposing that the products of the manufactory were all exported to England and sold to English customers, I should find it difficult to hold that the goodwill was out of England merely because the manufactory was. The application of the words "locally situate" would then present a different question, requiring, I should think, a different answer. Again, if the facts as to the distribution of the products were more complicated, as, for example, if the trade were diffused over England and other countries, then the location of the goodwill would be a more complex, although I do not by any means think an insoluble, problem.
I confess I find no repugnancy in affirming of the goodwill of a business that it is locally situate somewhere. It is, I should say, locally situate within the geographical limits which comprehend the seat of the trade, and the trade. That sounds like a very cautious statement, and fortunately it is enough for the present question. It seems to me that in the statute the distinction drawn is between what from a British point of view we should call British property and foreign property; and the goodwill of a business which begins and ends abroad is, I think, property locally situate outside the United Kingdom."
1 Citers
Â
Ellen Jackson (Since Deceased and Represented By Richard Cecil William Dixon The Sole Executor of Her Will) v The Commissioner of Stamps [1903] UKPC 26
1 May 1903
PC
Stamp Duty
(New Zealand)
[ Bailii ]
Â
 Prudential Insurance Co v Inland Revenue Commissioners; 1904 - [1904] 2 KB 658
Â
John Spencer Brunton and Others v The Acting Commissioner of Stamp Duties for The State of New South Wales [1913] AC 747; [1913] UKPC 28
20 Jun 1913
PC
Commonwealth, Stamp Duty
(New South Wales)
[ Bailii ]
Â
