Tootal Broadhurst Lee Co Ltd v Inland Revenue Commissioners: HL 1949

Fees received for the use of the taxpayer’s productive plant were not income from investment.
Lord Norman defined the meaning of ‘investment’, saying: ‘The meaning of ‘investment’ is its meaning, not in the vernacular of the man in the street, but in the vernacular of the business man. It is a form of income-yielding property which the businessman, looking at the total assets of the company, would single out as an investment. It certainly does not include all the property of the company and I am unable to accede to the proposition . . that every item of the company’s property is an investment, and that while the company uses those items itself the profit derives from them is a profit of trade, but, if it hands one of them over to others to use in return for a periodic payment, it begins to receive an income from an investment. The business man would not limit income from investments to income from the kinds of securities which are quoted on the stock exchange, and he would, I think, regard as income from investment a profitable rent from a sub-lease of office premises or the like surplus to the company’s requirements.’

Judges:

Lord Norman

Citations:

[1949] 1 All ER 261

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

CitedHM Revenue and Customs v A M Brander As Exec of The Will of The Late Fourth Earl of Balfour UTTC 16-Aug-2010
UTTC Inheritance tax – Exempt transfers and relief – Business property relief Replacement property – Deceased having liferent interest in family estate – Deceased declared to be fee simple proprietor of the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Taxes Management

Updated: 28 June 2022; Ref: scu.466793