NOTES AND QUERIES. 95 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Estate Duty on Timber under the Finance Act of 1910. 



The following correspondence is of interest : — 



To The Secretary, 



Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society. 



2\th October 1 9 1 1 . 



Dear Sir, — I beg to forward you herewith a note giving 

 particulars of a concession which has been granted by the 

 Inland Revenue Authorities in the matter of Estate Duty on 

 timber under the Finance Act, 1910, and I will be obliged if 

 you will give this all the publicity you can in your next 

 publication. — Yours truly, 



E. Davidson, Secy, and Treas., 



Royal English Arboricultural Society. 



Estate Ditty. 



In the April 191 1 issue of the Quarterly Journal of Forestry, 

 the official organ of the Royal English Arboricultural Society, 

 there appeared correspondence between the president, Mr E. R. 

 Pratt, and the Estate Duty Office on the question of estate 

 duty on timber. In Section 61 (5) of the Finance Act, 1910, 

 the estate duty is payable on "the nett moneys after deducting 

 all necessary out-goings." This was held by the Estate Duty 

 Office to include " the expenses of the sale, felling, and drawing 

 out of the timber, and of restoring fences, ditches, roads, and 

 gates injured by the drawing out of such timber." 



It was pointed out by Mr Pratt that, if an owner is desirous 

 of maintaining his woods in an economically sound condition, 

 he must obviously have to replant the thinned out timber 

 grounds, and that such cost should be allowed as a deduction. 

 The reply was to the effect that this cost was 7iot allowed as a 

 deduction against estate duty or succession duty, and that this 

 view would be enforced in a Court of Law. 



Since the receipt of this ruling, however, the Society has 



