TNAG-1363-FCO40-1809-Hong-Kong-Hansard-reports-and-minutes-of-the-meetings-of-the-1985 — Page 248

Question No. 1

The Hon CHEUNG Yan-lung, OBE, SBStJ, JP :

Further to my question asked in this Council on 9 March 1983, can Government make a statement on the latest position regarding the average length of time taken for land property values in the New Territories to be assessed for estate duty purposes?

Sir,

REPLY BY THE HONOURABLE THE ACTING FINANCIAL SECRETARY

IN LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL: WEDNESDAY, 10 JULY 1985

The reply the Financial Secretary, Sir John Bremridge, gave in this Council in 1983 still holds good today. Simple cases can be completed within as little as one month, but complex cases may take up to six months or more to complete.

2.

While the Commissioner for Estate Duty and others involved do their best to complete valuations as quickly as possible, personal representatives and their professional advisers can do much to help by fully disclosing in their estate duty affidavits all landed property with realistic estimates of the open market value.