Wills, Trusts & Estates

if the property be parted with before the duty is paid the liability of the successor is
transferred to the alienee. It is, therefore, usual in requisitions on title before
conveyance, to demand for the protection of the purchaser the production of receipts for
succession duty, as such receipts are an effectual protection notwithstanding any
suppression or misstatement in the account on the footing of which the duty was
assessed or any insufficiency of such assessment. The duty is by this act directed to be
assessed as follows: on personal property, if the successor takes a limited estate, the
duty is assessed on the principal value of the annuity or yearly income estimated
according to the period during which he is entitled to receive the annuity or yearly
income, and the duty is payable in four yearly installments free from interest. If the
successor takes absolutely he pays in a lump-sum duty on the principal value. On real
property the duty is payable in eight half-yearly installments without interest on the
capital value of an annuity equal to the annual value of the property. Various minor
changes were made. The Customs and Inland Revenue Act 1881 exempted personal
estates under 300. The Customs and Inland Revenue Act 1888 charged an additional
1% on successions already paying 1% and an additional 11% on successions paying
more than 1%. By the Customs and Inland Revenue Act 1889, an additional duty of 1%
called an "estate duty" was payable on successions over 10,000.
The Finance Acts 1894 and 1909 effected large changes in the duties payable on
death. As regards the succession duties they enacted that payment of the estate duties
thereby created should include payment of the additional duties mentioned above.
Estates under £1,000 (£2,000 in the case of widow or child of deceased) are exempted
from payment of any succession duties. The succession duty payable under the
Succession Duty Act 1853 was in all cases to be calculated according to the principal
value of the property, i.e., its selling value, and though still payable by installments
interest at 3% is chargeable. The additional succession duties are still payable in cases
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