A proprietor had let to coalmasters his minerals at a rent based on royalties varying with the price of the minerals. He was called upon to pay excess mineral rights duty for the accounting years ending Martinmas 1914 and Martinmas 1915.
Held (1) that the excess mineral rights duty was based, not on the excess (if any) of the rent payable for the accounting year over the rent of the pre-war standard year, but on the excess of the royalty in the accounting year over the pre-war standard royalty, and that the sum upon which tax fell to be levied was the difference between the amount of the royalties in the accounting year and the amount to which royalties on the same quantity of minerals at the prewar standard would have come; (2) that the exemption ‘where the right to work the minerals’ are ‘part of the assets of any trade or business’ referred only to a trade or business of the person in right to receive the rent.
Judges:
Lord Chancellor (Finlay), Viscount Haldane, Lord Dunedin, and Lord Shaw
Citations:
[1918] UKHL 428, 55 SLR 428
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Taxes – Other
Updated: 26 March 2022; Ref: scu.631474