NOTE ON THE DEATH DUTIES AS AFFECTING WOODLANDS. 1 33 



17. Note on the Death Duties as affecting Woodlands, 



By Robert Galloway, S.S.C. 



The Death duties may be described as (i) Estate duty under 

 the Act of 1894; (2) Succession duty under the Act of 1853; 

 and (3) in certain cases, Settlement estate duty. 



Estate Duty. 



Section 7 (5) of the Finance Act, 1894, enacts that "the 

 principal value of any property shall be estimated to be the 

 price which, in the opinion of the Commissioners, such property 

 would fetch if sold in the open market at the time of the 

 death of the deceased," but there is a proviso that the principal 

 value shall not exceed twenty-five times the annual value 

 as assessed under Schedule A of the Income Tax Acts, after 

 making various allowances in respect of outgoings and 

 management. 



This in practice has been interpreted to mean that where an 

 estate, including the woodlands, is sufficiently valuable to yield 

 25 years' purchase of its rental or annual value, no higher value 

 can be taken, even although a large quantity of mature timber 

 should happen to be upon the ground. 



By Section 60 of the Finance (1909-10) Act, 1910, the proviso 

 mentioned above, limiting the valuation of an estate to 25 

 years' purchase of its rental, has been abolished in the 

 case of persons dying after 30th April 1909, and it is enacted 

 that in estimating the principal value of any property "the 

 Commissioners shall fix the price of the property according to 

 the market price at the time of the death of the deceased, and 

 shall not make any reduction in the estimate on account of the 

 estimate being made on the assumption that the whole property 

 is to be placed on the market at one and the same time," but it 

 is provided that where it is proved to the Commissioners that 

 the value of the property has been depreciated by reason of the 

 death of the deceased they shall, in fixing the price, take such 

 depreciation into account. Provision is also made by the Act 

 for appeals against the decision of the Commissioners, as to the 

 value of property. 



Special provisions as to the payment of duties have been 

 made with respect to certain classes of property, including 



