Finance (1909-10) Act 1910

58 Amendment of rates of legacy duty and succession duty.

(1) Any legacy or succession duty which tinder the [55 Geo. 3. c. 184.] Stamp Act, 1815, or the [16 & 17 Vict. c. 51.] Succession Duty Act, 1853, or any other Act, is payable at the rate of three per cent shall be payable at the rate of five per cent and any legacy or succession duty which under the said Acts is payable at the rate of five per cent or six per cent shall be payable at the rate of ten per cent on the amount or value of the legacy or succession.

(2) The legacy and succession duty payable at the rate of one per cent. on the amount or value of any legacy or succession under the Stamp Act, 1815, and the Succession Duty Act, 1853, or any other Act, shall be levied and paid notwithstanding any repeal effected by or anything contained in the principal Act (except subsection (3) of section sixteen thereof) or any other Act, and the duty shall also be levied and paid in cases where the person taking the legacy or succession is the husband or wife of the testator, intestate, or predecessor as in cases where the person taking the legacy or succession is a lineal ancestor or descendant of the testator, intestate, or predecessor:

Provided that the duty shall not be levied—

(a) Where the principal value of the property passing on the death of the deceased in respect of which estate duty is payable (other than property in which the deceased never had an interest, and property of which the deceased never was competent to dispose and which on his death passes to persons other than the husband or wife or a lineal ancestor or descendant of the deceased) does not exceed fifteen thousand pounds, whatever may be the value of the legacy or succession ; or

(b) Where the amount or value of the legacy or succession together with any other legacies or successions derived by the same person from the testator, intestate, or predecessor does not exceed one thousand pounds, whatever may be the principal value of such property; or

(c) Where the person taking the legacy or succession is the widow or a child under the age of twenty-one years of the testator, intestate, or predecessor, and the amount or value of the legacy or succession together with any other legacies or successions derived by the same person from the testator, intestate, or predecessor, does not exceed two thousand pounds, whatever may be the principal value of such property.

(3) In this section, the expression " deceased " means, in the case of a legacy, the testator (including a person making a donation mortis causa) or intestate, and, in the case of a succession arising through devolution by law, the person on whose death the succession arises, and, in the case of a succession arising under a disposition, the person on whose death the first succession thereunder arises; and the expression " legacy " includes residue and share of residue.

(4) This section shall take effect in the case of legacy duty only where the testator by whose will the legacy is given or the intestate on whose death the legacy duty is payable, dies on or after the thirtieth day of April nineteen hundred and nine, and, in the case of a succession arising through devolution by law, only where the succession arises on or after that date, and, in the case of a succession arising under a disposition, only if the first succession under the disposition arises on or after that date.