The Gazette 1964/67

Longford. He was admitted on i5th December, 1941 and practised with his father P. J. Branigan under the name of T. W. Delany & Co., solicitors, Longford. BOOK REVIEW A Guide to the Death Duties in Ireland, by M. K. O'Connor, barrister-at-law. Published by the General Council of Provincial Solicitors' Associa tions. 59 pages, (n.p.). This booklet is based on a series of lectures given by the author (who is a senior examiner in the estate duty office—although the booklet is written in his private capacity) to the Tipperary and Offaly (Birr Division) Sessional Bar Association. While it does not claim to be a treatise or even a synopsis of the death duties, it is, nonetheless, a most valuable guide to their main features. Its eight chapters deal with : Legacy duty, estate duty, and succession duty, their imposition and the principal exemptions; aggregation, accountability, liability and incidence of estate duty, practice and procedure, and time for payment and payment by instalments. It has three appendices, giving the rates of duties and a memoran dum of the estate duty office as to procedure with the estate duty office in case of shares in private companies. It would be quite unfair to complain about omissions in view of the declared limited intention of the author, but if a further edition is, as we hope, contemplated, it would not add greatly to the size of the booklet—and would add considerably to its value—if he would deal with accountability and payment of legacy and succession duties as he does for estate duty. A short chapter on practice and procedure in regard to these two duties would also be most helpful. This guide should be of great assistance to the student as well as to the practitioner. It is lucidly and simply written. The chapter on aggregation is particularly valuable. A few minor corrections may be noted. On p. 14 the author remarks that it has "now been established" that section 2 of the Finance Act 1894 is an expansion of and explanatory of section i and is not a separate charging section, contrary to what had hitherto been assumed from the Cotvley Case (1895) i Q.B. It should be emphasised that the case which "estab lished" this proposition is an English decision which need not be followed in this country. On p. 15, the "and" at the beginning of the third- last line should read "or". The correction alters the sense of the entire statement. On p. 17, paragraphs (a) and (V)— giving the two "statutory exceptions" to the rule that foreign

property on which no legacy or succession duty is payable is also exempt from estate duty—are mis placed. They should come immediately after the words "two statutory exceptions". On the third-last line of the same page, "under £5,000" should read "not exceeding". On p. 29, dealing with the 1961 change in aggrega tion, it should be noted that the new provision applies to persons dying on or after 28th July, 1961. On 26th November, 1964 Mr. M. J. O'Connor, barrister-at-law of the estate duty office gave a talk to members in the Society's library. At the outset the lecturer mentioned that historians and archaeolo gists had discovered the existence of a form of death duties in ancient Egypt which according to an eminent authority was probably at the rate of ten per cent. The lecturer stated however that in those days it was likely that desk work was of minor importance and that far more attention was given to collection than to assessment. The lecturer traced the course of the death duty code from 1774 to 1894 and the subsequent revenue statutes. He described briefly the organisation of the estate duty office, and the work of the various divisions dealing with affidavits, deeds, wills, accounts and review and certificates. The growth in the importance of the work in the office from the point of the view of the state was illustrated by the fact that the collection had grown from £400,000 in 1896 to £3|-m. in the last financial year. The expenses of administration are 3J%. _ Describing the training of the officials the lecturer quoted from an old manual which stated that the new entrant in addition to his legal course "will find it necessary to learn the customs of the stock exchange and the practice of banking and to acquire facility in reading trust accounts, balance sheets and profit and loss accounts. . . . The new entrant should also make himself acquainted with business and financial methods with the framework of the financial machine and with the ways of the world generally. By doing so, he will help to equip himself to conduct the business of the office with efficiency and economy of effort." Having described the work of the various divisions Mr. O'Connor dealt with a number of practical points to which attention should be paid in com pleting affidavits and forms and ways in which unnecessary queries, with consequent delay, may be avoided and illustrated by examples the type of reply which necessitates sending back the form for further information. He also dealt with the question THE ESTATE DUTY OFFICE AND THE PROFESSION