The Gazette 1949-1952

EXAMINATION RESULTS A t the Preliminary Examination for intending ap­ prentices to Solicitors held on the 31st day o f March and 1 st day of April, the following passed the exam­ ination and their names are arranged in order of merit:— 3 candidates entered ; 2 passed ; 1 was postponed. At the Final Examination for apprentices to Solici­ tors held on the 31st day of March and the 1st and 2nd days o f April, the following passed the examina­ tion and their names are arranged in order o f merit:—- 1. Edward P. King. 2. John Brendan O’Flynn. 1. J ohn J oseph Delap. 2. James Noel Tanham. The remaining candidate is postponed.

persons related in a certain way. The relief was re­ stricted to cases where persons were transferring property by way o f gifts to their children or other younger relatives or to their brothers or sisters. It has been represented to me that hardship may be caused by restricting the relief to these particular kinds o f family transactions. For example, there is no relief where children want to transfer- property to their widowed mother, or where brothers and sisters want to sell their interest in the family farm to that member of the family who is remaining on to work the land. To meet these cases I propose to include in the Finance Bill a provision extending the relief to include sales as well as gifts or voluntary dis­ positions, and transfers from the younger to the older relatives as well as transfers in the opposite direction. This will mean that the maximum rate of duty in all these cases will be 1 per cent. Under 1947 legislation stamp duty at the rate of 25 per cent, was imposed on transfers o f lands or tenements unless the instrument contained a state­ ment certifying that the person who became entitled to the entire beneficial interest in the property was an Irish citizen or came within one of the other classes specified in the statute. The specified classes did not include a body corporate without a share capital, incorporated in the State after the 15 th October, 1947. It follows that transfers to bodies corporate of this type are chargeable with duty at the rate of 25 per cent., even though the body may be composed exclusively of Irish citizens. Another general type o f body corporate not men­ tioned among the classes which the legislation speci­ fies is the body corporate incorporated in the State after the 15 th October, 1947, whose issued shares are wholly or mainly in the beneficial ownership of another body corporate incorporated here after the same date, where the issued shares of this other body corporate are wholly or mainly held by Irish citizens. In other words, under the law as it stands the ques­ tion of the 25 per cent, rate of stamp duty would arise in the case o f a transfer o f lands or tenements to a subsidiary of an Irish company registered after the 15 th October, 1947. The two difficulties I have indicated are mani­ festing themselves in concrete cases and it is my intention accordingly to have remedial provisions written into this year’s Finance Bill. Another matter which will be covered is the granting of exemption or virtual exemption from duty in instances where property is transferred and the transfer is being made from a parent company to its subsidiary. Death Duties

3. Patrick J. Carey. 4- John V. Kelly. 5. Patrick Desmond O’Connor. 6. Michael F. Flanagan \ John A. Greene j Equal. 8. Francis G. Keane. 9. Patrick O’R. M arkey\ Patrick Noel Downes j* Equal.

it . Francis B. Geary. 12. Felim H. Meade. 13. Patrick E. Thornton. 14. Henry W. Burleigh. 15. Kathleen Cussen. 16. Daniel C. Brilley \ Mary Noone 18. Eileen Anne Brennan. 19. William S. O’Brien.

j-Equal.

20. Patrick L. Tracey. 21. Patrick J . Cusack. 22. Simon D. J . Comer. 23. David Punch. The remaining candidates are postponed. 29 candidates entered : 23 passed; 5 were post­ poned ; 1 did not attend. The Council has awarded Special Certificates to Edward P. King and John Brendan O’Flynn. By Order, E ric A. P lunkett Secretary.

STAMP DUTIES M IN IST ER ’S BU D G ET STATEM ENT

It will be recalled that in the Finance (No. 2) Act, I 947 >by which the rates o f stamp duty on transfers ° f Ends and houses were increased, provision was made to relieve from the increase transfers between

Where a sum o f money is deposited with a banker in the joint names of two or more persons and one 87