Finance Act 1900

PART III Death Duties

11 Amendment of 57 & 58 Vict. c.30 as to property passing on death

(1) In the case of every person dying after the thirty-first day of March nineteen hundred, property whether real or personal in which the deceased person or any other person had an estate or interest limited to cease on the death of the deceased shall, for the purpose of the Finance Act, 1894, and the Acts amending; that Act, be deemed to pass on the death of the deceased, notwithstanding that that estate or interest has been surrendered, assured, divested, or otherwise disposed of, whether for value or not, to or for the benefit of any person entitled to an estate or interest in remainder or reversion in such property, unless that surrender, assurance, divesting, or disposition was bona fide made or effected twelve months before the death of the deceased, and bona fide possession and enjoyment of the property was assumed thereunder immediately upon the surrender, assurance, divesting, or disposition, and thenceforward retained to the entire exclusion of the person who had the estate or interest limited to cease as aforesaid, and of any benefit to him by contract or otherwise.

(2) This section shall inter alia apply in Scotland to the conveyance or discharge of any life rent in favour of the fiar, or to the propulsion of the fee under any simple or tailzied destination.

12 Amendment of 57 & 58 Vict. c.30 s.4, as to aggregation

(1) The exclusion enacted by the proviso to section four of the Finance Act, 1894, of property from aggregation shall in the case of every person dying after the passing of this Act cease to have effect, except as regards property in which the deceased never had an interest.

Provided that where an interest in expectancy (within the meaning of Part I. of the Finance Act, 1894) in any property has before the passing of this Act been bona, fide sold or mortgaged for full consideration in money or money's worth, then no other duty on such property shall be payable by the purchaser or mortgagee when the interest falls into possession than would have been payable if this section had not passed; and in the case of a mortgage any higher duty payable by the mortgagor shall rank as a charge subsequent to that of the mortgagee.

(2) Where settled property passes, or is deemed to pass, on the death of a person dying after the passing of this Act under a disposition made' by a person dying before the commencement of Part I. of the Finance Act, 1894, and such property would, if the disponer had died after the commencement of the said Part, have been liable to Estate duty upon his death, the aggregation of such property, with other property passing upon the first-mentioned death, shall not operate to enhance the rate of duty payable either upon the settled property or upon any other property so passing by more than one half per cent. in excess of the rate at which duty would have been payable if such settled property had been treated as an estate by itself.

13 Amendment of 59 & 60 Vict. c.28 s.17, as to exclusion of fractions from value

(1) For the purpose of determining the rate and the amount of duty, the exclusion under section seventeen of the Finance Act, 1896, of any fraction from the principal value of the estate shall in the case of every person dying after the passing of this Act cease to have effect.

(2) The Commissioners of Inland Revenue may, if they think fit, accept a statement by or on behalf of any accountable person as a correction of any Inland Revenue affidavit or account within the meaning of Part I. of the Finance Act, 1894, for the purposes of that Act and the Acts amending that Act, without requiring that statement to be verified on oath.

14 Remission of death duties in case of persons killed in war

(1) Where any person dies from wounds inflicted, accident occurring, or disease contracted, within twelve months before death, while on active service against an enemy, whether on sea or land, and was, when the wounds were inflicted, the accident occurred, or the disease was contracted, either subject to the Naval Discipline Act or subject to military law, whether as an officer, non-commissioned officer, or soldier, under Part V. of the Army Act, the Treasury may, if they think fit, on the recommendation of the Secretary of State or of the Admiralty, as the case requires, remit, or in the case of duty already paid repay, up to an amount not exceeding one hundred and fifty pounds in any one case, the whole or any part of the death duties (within the meaning of subsection three of section thirteen of the [57 & 58 Vict. c. 30.] Finance Act, 1894) leviable in respect of property passing upon the death of the deceased to his widow or lineal descendants if the total value for the purpose of estate duty of the property so passing does not exceed five thousand pounds.

(2) This section shall take effect in the case of any person dying since the eleventh day of October one thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine.