44 / 338
of the income as is applied for the benefit of annuities
under the contracts and schemes mentioned.
Section 43
contains a number of machinery
provisions. It prescribes the manner in which relief
in respect of a qualifying premium is to be claimed
and gives the taxpayer a right of appeal if his claim
is not admitted. It also enables the Revenue Com–
missioners to make regulations as regards certain
matters of procedure and provides a penalty for
false claims to relief.
Section 54 is intended broadly to bring the position
in the High Court as to recovery of tax into line with
that existing in the Circuit and District Courts under
Section n of the Finance Act 1924 and Section 39
of the Finance Act 1926.
It authorises, without
prejudice to existing methods of recovery, High
Court proceedings to be taken in the name of an
officer of the Revenue Commissioners, and pre–
scribes a simplified mode of prima facie proof.
Section 58 exempts from Stamp Duty receipts
issued by the Land Commission for certain payments
made to them in their capacity as successors to the
Commissioners of Church Temporalities in Ireland.
Section 59 exempts from Stamp Duty any instru–
ments where the amount of duty chargeable thereon
would have to be stamped solely out of moneys
provided by the Oireachtas.
Section 60 repeals the Stamp Duty at present
chargeable on bonds required for Customs and
Excise purposes. These bonds relate mainly to the
temporary
importation of motor vehicles,
the
importation of goods for further manufacture, ^he
payment of Entertainments Duty on the basis of
certified returns, etc.
First Schedule of the Act Retirement Annuities
(Adjustments of Limit on Qualifying Premiums).
The First Schedule modifies the limits of relief in
respect of " qualifying premiums " specified
in
Section 41 of the Act in certain cases.
Part I of the Schedule provides for a reduction in
the £500 limit in the case of a person whose earnings
include remuneration from a pensionable employ–
ment. Part II increases both the £500 limit and the
percentage limit on a sliding scale according to age
in the case of persons who had attained the age of
40 years before the ist January last.
EXECUTION OF DOCUMENTS IN U.S.A.
THE Society has received a letter from the Depart–
ment of External Affairs drawing attention to certain
matters
in connection with
the completion of
affidavits and other documents by persons resident
in the United States of America intended for use
in Eire. It appears that in some cases Irish solicitors
instruct their clients in the United States to execute
documents before notaries public and then to bring
or send them to the nearest Irish Consul for legal–
isation of the notary's signature and seal. The Consul
General has pointed out that it is not the practice
of Irish consular officers in the United States to
legalise the signatures and seals of notaries public
practising in the various States of the Union and
accordingly an instruction in the form mentioned
sometimes
causes delay and occasionally extra
expense when the client is
required to make a
journey to one of the consular offices concerned.
The present practice is to require the signature
and seal of a notary public practising in the United
States to be authenticated by the certificate of the
county clerk within whose area the notary practises.
Only when this certificate is affixed to the document
witnessed by the notary can it be legalised by an
Irish consular officer. The certificate of the county
clerk costs only 25 cents.
As an alternative to the above arrangement the
Department points out that under the Commis–
sioners for Oaths (Diplomatic and Consular) Act,
1931, Irish diplomatic and consular officers are
authorised to do notarial acts and it is accordingly
open to any solicitor desiring to have a document
authenticated abroad
to arrange
for
its direct
authentication by the nearest Irish diplomatic or
consular officer. The fees charged for such services
are prescribed by the Diplomatic and Consular Fees
Regulations, 1956 CS.I. No. 263 of 1956).
(See
Gazette,
November 1956, page 45.)
With regard to the many States in which there
are no Irish Consulates, it would appear that the
most convenient and least expensive method of
having the seal of a notary public authenticated
would be to have the notary's seal certified in the
first instance by the Local County Clerk, and then to
have the document forwarded to the Irish Consul
within whose Consular jurisdiction the State in
question lies for authentication of the County Clerk's
signature and seal.
A list of the States which lie within the Consular
jurisdiction of the Irish Diplomatic and Consular
Offices in the United States is appended.
CONSULAR DISTRICTS.
NEW YORK :
New York, Connecticut, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, West
Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Georgia, Florida.
BOSTON :
Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont,
Massachusetts, Rhode Island.
CHICAGO :
North Dakota,
South Dakota,
Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Minnesota,
Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi,
Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana,
Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin.
40