333 / 364
tates of which his deceased was executor or trustee
and the position of the administration of these
estates, if any. Is it likely that the Revenue Com
missioners would seek to hold the last executor
responsible for duties payable out of previous
estates of which he knows nothing at the time
of taking out the grant to his testator? 1 should
be obliged if you will summarise the statutory
provisions under which estate, legacy and suc
cession duty become barred by lapse of time,
because this is a material consideration in con
nection with
the present problem. Will
the
Revenue Commissioners be barred if they fail to
put in a claim for outstanding death duties in
reply to a statutory notice to creditors on behalf
of the executor of testator B, the death duties
being chargeable on the estate of testator A of
whom B was executor?
15th February
1967,
Revenue Commissiov.ers to
Society :
Reference to your letter of 31st January.
I think it reasonable to assume that the papers
of a deceased executor would contain
inditia
which would alert his own executor to the exist
ence of the previous estate. The latter would
naturally have examined these for the purpose of
the extraction of his own grant. It seems to me
improbable that he would be entirely unaware
of the position.
In a case in which section 8 (3) of the Finance
Act 1894, might operate so that liability would
be limited to assets which the executor by chain
of representation has received or might "but for
his own neglect or default" have received, if there
had been assets which he might have got into his
own possession it would be a question of fact
whether his failure to do so was a consequence
of his own neglect or default. If he had been,
through no fault of his own, genuinely unaware of
the matter, and was no longer in a position to
get in the assets it appears to me that he could
rely on the section.
Debts due to the State are not bound by Lord
St. Leonard's Act and the Revenue Commissioners
are accordingly not affected by the publication
of a statutory notice to creditors. You may recall
that, in May 1960, this was the subject of a
discussion between your Society and the Revenue.
The following are the provisions which put
a time limit on claims for death duties :—
Legacy Duty and Succession Duty
Section 12 of the Customs and Inland Revenue
Act,
1889 protects purchasers and mortgagors
against claims for Succession Duty after the ex
piration of six years from the date of notice to
the Commissioners of the death which lets in the
succession or, in the absence of such notice, after
the expiration of twelve years from such death.
Section 12 of that Act bars a claim for duty
under a document (other than a testamentary
document) after the lapse of six years from date
of notice to the Commissioners of the fact which
gives rise to a claim for duty under the document
if an attested copy of the document has been
deposited with the Commissioners.
Section 14 of the same Act relates to claims
under a testamentary document admitted to pro
bate or under letters of administration. Lender
this section the limit is also six years from the
date of the settlement of the account in respect
of which duty is payable, provided the account
is a full and true one and is correct to the best
of the knowledge and belief of the accountable
party.
Estate Duty
The above provisions are applied
to Estate
Duty by Section 8 (2) of the Finance Act, 1894.
Generally
An accountable party is also, of course, pro
tected in respect of specified property by
the
issue of a certificate of discharge in respect of
that property. The relevant sections are Section
12 of the Customs and Inland Revenue Act 1880
(as to Legacy Duty and Succession Duty) and
Section
11
of
the Finance Act,
1894
(as
to
Estate Duty).
Correction
In the article of similar title in the last number
of the GAZETTE p. 106, col 1, line 22 for A read
E.
THE FUTURE PATTERN OF THE
PROFESSION
Part I
By SIR THOMAS LUND, C.B.E.
(Secretary to the Law Society, England)
Introduction
Gazing into the crystal ball is not to be recom
mended except when the vision is of the so far
distant future that the soothsayer can safely rely
upon having passed on by the time that the
truth is revealed. Nevertheless, the writer proposes
119