was allowed.(0) But no return was granted in respect of voluntary debts due from a person dying after 28th June, 1861, expressed to be payable on the death of the deceased, or under any instrument which shall not have been bona fide delivered to the donee thereof three months before the death of such person.(p) The funeral expenses and those connected with the inventory were not allowed as deductions. If the estate could not be realised within three years, the time to apply for return of duty could be extended by the Inland Revenue Commissioners on application for that purpose.(q) The necessity for this round-about way of adjusting the inventory accounts has now been removed by the Customs and Inland Revenue Act, 1881. That Act(r) allows to be deducted from the amount of the inventory "debts due and owing from the deceased, and payable by law out of any part of the estate and effects comprised in the affidavit or inventory, but are not to include voluntary debts expressed to be payable on the death of the deceased, or payable under any instrument which shall not have been bona fide delivered to the donee thereof three months before the death of the deceased, or debts in respect whereof any real estate may be primarily liable, or a reimbursement may be capable of being claimed from any real estate of the deceased, or from any other estate or person;" the funeral expenses to be deducted under this power "include only such expenses as are allowable as reasonable funeral expenses according to law.(s). 167. Official Regulations.-The following regulations have been prescribed by the Inland Revenue Commissioners in regard to obtaining a return of the Stamp Duty on inventories exhibited after 31st August, 1815, on the ground of debts paid out of the estate : 1. Application must be made by the claimant, in person or by his agent, at the Legacy Duty Office of Inland Revenue, Edinburgh, upon any Monday or Friday, but no return can be deemed to have been duly applied for unless the application is made by means of a sworn affidavit and schedule of debts, according to the next succeeding regulation, within three years from the date of recording the Inventory in the Books of the Sheriff or Commissary Court. If, however, the executor or legal representative shall be prevented from claiming a return of duty within (0) 23 & 24 Vict. c. 80, §§ 4 & 6. (r) 44 Vict. c. 12, § 28; not retrospective. (s) 44 Vict. c. 12, § 28. that period, application to the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, by letter addressed to Alfred Hanson, Esq., Inland Revenue, Somerset House, London, W.C., having the Legacy Duty Office reference on it, may be made, in the first instance, to grant further time, and this must be obtained before making the claim. 2. It is necessary to produce an affidavit of the executor or legal representative of the deceased, and a schedule of debts in respect of which the return of duty is claimed, according to the forms given therein and below(a), together with such valuations or appraisements as are referred to in the inventory. 3. Evidence must be given of the validity of the debts, and of their being payable by law, and paid out of the deceased's personal estate; and vouchers (on the proper stamps) of the payment thereof must be exhibited. The proper documents in respect of debts on bond, bill, or other security, are the several instruments (duly stamped) relating to such debts, with the proper discharges or other acknowledgments of the payment. If the debts are not secured by bonds, bills, or otherwise, the relative accounts, or other instructions, should be produced. 4. The affidavit may be made in England before a Commissioner appointed to administer oaths in the Supreme Court of Judicature in England, or at the Legacy Duty Office, Somerset House; or in Scotland before one of Her Majesty's Justices of the Peace. But unless made at the Legacy Duty Office, Somerset House, or before a Justice of the Peace in Scotland, such affidavit requires a 2s. 6d. stamp. 5. The affidavit is to be written on a sheet of foolscap paper, with a quarter margin on the left-hand side of each page. On the third page of the sheet, the amount or value of the deceased's estate is to be stated from the inventory exhibited in the proper Court, and any correction of the value may here be made, not inferring the alteration of the amount of Stamp Duty; and a schedule or list is to be given of the debts actually paid, in the form and manner set forth therein and below (b). It will also be proper to number the articles of the schedule, and to put corresponding numbers upon the vouchers. 6. If an additional inventory shall be requisite at the time of applying for a return of the duty, on the ground of debts, such additional inventory, duly stamped, should be exhibited in the proper Court. If, on the other hand, any effects shall have been overstated in the original inventory, so as to have occasioned the inadvertent payment of a higher rate of duty than that legally payable in reference to the true gross value of the estate, it will be competent to exhibit a new inventory in the Sheriff or Commissary Court, containing such gross value, and stamped in correspondence therewith; and thereafter to obtain allowance of the original inventory, as a spoiled stamp, provided such allowance shall be applied for within six calendar months from the date of the new inventory, and provided this shall have been exhibited before the obtaining of any return of the duty paid on the original inventory. 7. A return of duty cannot be granted on account of debts which are not actually paid, nor until the effects of the deceased be fully got in and converted into money, or the amount and value thereof shall be otherwise clearly ascertained, and the executor or legal representative enabled to render an account of the clear residue of the personal estate of the deceased, and pay the Legacy Duty thereon. To instruct that the Legacy Duty has been paid or that no Legacy Duty is due, the presenter of the claim must obtain a certificate thereon, by the proper officer, to that effect. The return of the Stamp Duty upon an inventory is restricted to the debts actually contracted, and due and owing by the deceased at the time of his death, and payable by law out of his personal estate; and no return can be granted, in respect of debts, with reference to any inventory dated prior to the 1st September, 1815. 8. All the personal effects of a deceased person are liable to the payment of his personal debts. When Probate or Administration Duty has been paid in respect of the personal estate in England and Ireland, an apportionment of the debts is necessary. In that case merely the amount of debts corresponding to the proportion which the Scotch effects bear to the estate in England and Ireland of the deceased, will be deducted from the amount of the debts described in the schedule, for ascertaining the return of Inventory Duty which is legally claimable. And for facilitating such an apportionment, it will be necessary to notice the estate in England and Ireland, if there be such, and to specify the amount or value in the Schedule No. 2, which is suggested in the annexed form (page 188), but which will not be requisite if the personal effects of the deceased are entirely situated in Scotland. Neither will it be necessary when the inventory shall embrace the whole effects of the deceased in Great Britain and Ireland, and bear a corresponding amount of duty, in terms of the Act 21 & 22 Vict. cap. 56. 9. With reference to such proportion of the debts as may, in the result of an apportionment, be ascertained to correspond to the particular amount of any effects of the deceased, in respect of which his will has been proved or letters of administration granted in Eugland or in Ireland, a distinct application for a corresponding return of the Probate or Administration Duty may be made at the Legacy Duty Office, Somerset House, or in Dublin, according to the forms there recognised. But the production of vouchers of the debts at that Office may be occasionally rendered unnecessary by a certificate of their correctness from the Office at Edinburgh. 10. In all cases in which a less sum than the full amount of the debt due shall have been paid, such smaller sum must be inserted in the schedule, that being the sum actually paid; and this latter sum must appear in the body of the affidavit. 11. When the claim shall have been examined and ascertained to be in all respects correct, the vouchers will be returned to the parties. The Comptroller of Inland Revenue will subsequently notify the result; and a Return of Duty (if authorised) will be thereupon obtained, all Legacy and Succession duty then due having first been paid. 12. If, in the affidavit, the deponent should pray to have the duty to be returned paid to his agent, the agent's receipt for the same will be a sufficient discharge. 13. The Superintendent of Legacy and Succession duties at Edinburgh. is instructed and authorised to call for such explanations from any claimant for a return of duty, or from the agent of such claimant, in the form of an affidavit of verity or of credulity, or otherwise, as may be considered requisite under the particular circumstances of the relative claim, but he is not at liberty to dispense with a particular observance of these regulations. 168. Form of Affidavit for Return of Duty.-The following is the form issued by the Inland Revenue : (design him), the executor-testamentary (or dative) of E. F., late who died on the sand Eight Hundred and day of ; and being solemnly sworn and examined, depones, That the said deponent did exhibit, in the Sheriff or Commissary Court of , a full and complete inventory (see Note D so far as then known), duly stamped, in terms of law, of all the personal estate and effects of the said deceased E. F.; and particularly all the property over which the deceased had The several sums must be expressed throughout the Affidavit IN WORDS AT LENGTH, instead of being denoted by FIGURES. a general power of appointment (see Note F) wherever situated, and therein described as amounting, so far as situated in Scotland (see Note E below) to the sum of on which Inventory was paid a stamp duty of and (see Note D below), and depones, That such personal estate and WHICH ARE SET FORTH IN THe Schedule No. 2, HEREUNTO ANNEXED, OF THE AMOUNT OF THE SAID DEBTS BETWEEN THE PERSONAL EFFECTS and that this sum being deducted from the amount or value of the said personal estate and effects of the deceased (see Note B) [IN SCOTLAND], doth reduce the same to a balance of ; which, if it had been the whole gross amount or value of the said personal estate and effects of the deceased, would have occasioned a less Stamp Duty to be paid on the said Inventory than was actually paid thereon by the sum of , as this deponent has been informed and believes: And farther depones, That relief or reimbursement of the debts specified in the aforesaid schedule, or of any part or parts thereof, has not been obtained, and is not due or claimable, from any real estate of the said deceased, or from any other estate distinct from the said personal estate, or from any person or persons whatever. All which is truth, as this deponent shall answer to God; and is now submitted to the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, praying that the said sum of may be returned to this deponent, pursuant to the Act of Parliament in that * sum must not be inserted for OBSERVE.-Although the Estate may be Insolvent, a larger Debts than will remain after deducting from the gross amount of the Property, the Funeral and Testamentary or Executorship expenses, less the Duty claimed to be returned. |