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GAZETTE
april
1982
BOOK REVIEW
Lawyers Law Books —
D. Raistrick— Second (Cumulative) Supplement 1982
— Professional Books Ltd. £7.50 (Sterling)
It is the inevitable fate of writers on tax matters to find
that their work is obsolescent by the time it leaves the
Printing Press and in this respect the Authors appear to
have been no more fortunate than their predecessors. As
their book went to press it was announced that substantial
alterations in C.A.T. would be made in their forthcoming
Finance Bill. The Finance Bill has now been introduced,
and provides for a radical curtailment ofthe existing exempt
thresholds.
The appearance of a second cumulative supplement to
Lawyers Law Books first published in 1977 shows com-
mendable dedication. The work itself, together with its
supplements, is a most useful index of law books and other
major publications, primarily of United Kingdom legal
literature, but also including many references to allied
subjects and to related legal systems. It is not, perhaps, a
book which all practices might regard as essential, but it is
certainly one which practitioners should bear in mind when
faced with the need to brief themselves rapidly on some
legal topic previously outside their ken.
It is all too easy to pick holes in any publication of this
sort, but the writer was somewhat nettled to Find no refer-
ence to O'Reilly & Redmond: Cases & Materials of the
Irish Constitution in the section headed Republic of
Ireland, which did contain J. M. Kelly: The Irish Con-
stitution and O'Casey J. P. (Sic) "Office of the Attorney
General in Ireland" and "Local Government in the Repub-
lic of Ireland. 1978 (Sic)". The feeling turned to amuse-
ment when it was realised that neither Wylie: Irish
Conveyancing Law nor Wylie: Irish Land Law, Second
Edition published by Professional Books itself were
included in the supplement.
John F. Buckley
Capital Acquisitions Tax
By Norman Bale and John Condon. Published by the
Institute of Taxation in Ireland. PP 244,1982.
It is a pleasure to welcome this excellent Book on Capital
Acquisitions Tax, the First of its kind.
The work is directed mainly towards students but also
will be extremely useful to the Practitioner. The structure of
the text is a commentary on a Section-by-Section (and sub-
section-by-sub-section) basis and, where the matter is suf-
ficiently complex to warrant it, an enlarged commentary by
way of overview. Where appropriate, references are given
to relevant cases and the cross-referencing throughout the
text to other relevant Sections is extremely valuable when
one is seeking to research some point.
It seems to the writer that, where the Parliamentary
draftsman does not have the awful precedent before him of
an English Finance Act, he makes a much better Fist of
coherent draftsmanship.
The Capital Acquisitions Tax Act is considered by
many to be one of the best drafted Fiscal statutes to have
been enacted in thisjurisdiction. Certainly the general view
of practitioners in this area is that it is extremely tightly
drawn. The Revenue no doubt would respond to this com-
ment by stating that they do not consider discretionary
trusts appropriately taxed. In fact there are many disadvan-
tages to leaving property indefinitely in a discretionary
trust, amongst which are that, with inflation and no increase
in thresholds since 1975, (in fact with the threatened sub-
stantial reduction in such thresholds by limiting any donee
to £ 150,000 for gifts or inheritance fromwhatever source)
the eventual cost of extracting property from a discretion-
ary trust may be greatly magnified. The Capital Gains Tax
implications of holding property in a discretionary trust
must also be considered and ifthere is income accumulating
in the discretionary trust, there may be an income tax
problem and/or a problem of income being treated as
capital when paid out to the Beneficiaries. A better view of
discretionary trusts is to regard them as useful vehicles for a
holding operation, particularly in the case of a young
family, until trustees can decide howbest to appropriate the
property. The question of the taxation of such trusts has
now been referred to the Commission on taxation and it will
be interesting to see their proposals.
The text opens with a short dictionary of legal terms,
which brings home to one the problems faced by Account-
ants and others not well versed in the Law of Property and
Trusts in seeking to grapple with a tax of this nature.
Thereafter, having gone through the Act Chapter by Chap-
ter and Section by Section, there are a series of Appendices
setting out the forms and a list ofsecurities available for pay-
ment of Inheritance Tax by way of transfer of securities
(Gift Tax cannot so be paid) and the rates of Capital
Acquisition Tax.
One of the great attractions throughout the text is the
Authors' constant use of working examples, by way of
explanation and elucidation of the legal phraseology in the
Statute.
The Authors are to be commended on their industry and
erudition and it is hoped that they will not be too discour-
aged by changes in the law to produce a revised edition
speedily.
M. R. Curran
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