38457-1914-Supplementary-Estate-Duty-Bill — Page 12

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The second step generally consists similarly in legisla- tion giving powers to some authority and providing that authority with machinery with which he is enabled to discover with some tolerable degree of certainty the value of estates upon which Probate Duty is leviable; whilst the third and last step is as a rule effected by legislation prescribing the methods by which the duty as essed may be paid and collected.

The existing law, contained in Ordinance No. 2 of 1897 and Ordinance No. 16 of 1901, Sections 22 to 27, is some- what vague and unsatisfactory. At present the collection of Probate Duty, which is a purely revenual matter, is con- joined with the legal operations necessary for the appoint- ment by the Court of an executor or administrator of the will or estate respectively of a deceased person. This procedure is not found to work well in practice and causes difficulty in cases where there are concerned certain classes of property which pass on death (such as a policy of in- surance taken out for the benefit of a child) in which the deceased's executor or administrator has no interest and of which he cannot obtain possession.

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This Bill, which is modelled on the Straits Settlements law governing the payment of Estate Duty, specifies the person liable to pay duty in each case and makes the assessment of estate duty a separate matter to be under- taken on oath and to be completed together with its pay- ment before any steps can be taken to obtain the necessary Probate or Letters of Administration.

The Bill introduces the system in forec in the United Kingdom of aggregating the value of all the property of a deceased person wherever situate for the purpose of deter- mining the rate at which estate duty shall be paid.

Subject to some important exceptions, it also follows the English law in making the duty payable on all property of a deceased person situate outside as well as within the Colony; the exceptions relating to property, in respect of which duty is paid in the place in which it is situate or which is of such a nature that it would be inequitable to make it subject locally to the payment of estate duty.

The Bill further introduces a new scale of rates of Estate Duty modelled on the scale in force in the United Kingdom. The principal effects of the proposed new scale are that large estates pay at an increased and small estates at a reduced rate. The local limit of exemption is thus raised from $250 to $500; estates between $1,000 and $5,000 in value pay only 1 per cent, instead of 2 per cent. ; estates between $10,000 and $50,000 and between $100,000 and $200,000 remain at the same rate as at present; all other estates pay at an increased rate.

Another fault in the existing local law is that the defini- tions of " property are not exhaustive whilst there existe no effective machinery for enforcing a full disclosure of the property of a deceased person. The Bill therefore defines property "in detail and provides the Commis- sioner with suitable means for obtaining all the necessary information.

The Bill further contains rigorous provisions imposing upon various classes of persons against whom under the present law it would be impossible to proceed the obliga- tion of seeing, so far as they are concerned, that the law shall be carried out; the principle involved being that it is the duty of persons cognizant of property, a portion of which belongs to the revenue of the Colony, to assist Government in ensuring that its revenue shall not be defrauded. In this connection the Bill also provides that a Schedule of property shall be attached to every Probate or Letters of Administration and throws an obligation on any person who deals with the property of a deceased

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