CO129-423 - Governor Sir May - 1915 [7-8] — Page 549

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with which such person in fact deals is actually included

in the schedule attached to the grant.

Section 1 is formal.

Section 2 makes certain minor amendments.

Section 3 defines the meaning of certain terms used in the ordinance.

Section 4 provides for the levy of estate duty sub- stituting this term for the existing "Probate Duty".

Section 5 sets out the property which is deemed to pass on death.

Section 6 exempta from the payment of estate duty transactions for money consideration, property outside the Colony, and shares on local registers, The reason why the law in the United Kingdom was not followed as regards movable property was that it would be practically impossi- ble to collect the duty on movable property in China, and in any case the number of Europeans and Chinese domiciled in Hongkongie probably comparatively small,

Section 7 provides for the aggregation of the value of all a deceased person's property in respect of which

duty is payable for the purpose of determining the rate at which estate duty shall be charged,

Section 8 sets out the manner in which estate duty is

to be paid and contains the new provision that interest

shall be payable upon estate duty from the date of death to

the date of payment.

1

Section 9 introduces the new allowance of en exemp-

tion for funeral expenses, which have not up to the presenti

time been allowed to be deducted. The Chinese tendency is to excessive expenditure on funerals and it seemed necessary to fix a maximum; the slight indirect discourage-| ment of excessive expenditure which the provision may possibly effect seemed also not undesirable.