Succession Duties - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition succession-duties

Definition :

Succession duties. The (English) Succession Duty Act, 1853, amended by 22 & 23 Vict. c. 21, ss. 12-15, and by the Customs and Inland Revenue Acts, 1881, 1888, and 1889, imposed a new set of duties, varying in amount from 1 per cent. in the case of a child succeeding a parent to 10 per cent. in the case of succession to a stranger in blood, upon real or personal property to which any person succeeds on the death of another. The duty is calculated on the capitalized value for the life of the successor of the property succeeded to, in accordance with a table schedule to the Act of 1853; e.g., if a person aged fifty succeed to property worth 100l. a year, he pays succession duty upon 1242l. 19s. 6d.

Succession duties are payable as a rule at the same rate as legacy duty in respect of all property liable to be administered by any Court in Great Britain and Northern Ireland--unlike legacy duty, it falls on property passing by death (succession), under disposition by deed or other instrument (inter vivos) as well as by will or on an intestacy. The liability to duty arises on creation of the succession--it becomes leviable if and when the property falls in possession. As to liability on land charged. [see (English) Law of Property Act, 1925, ss. 16 and 17, and (English) Land Charges Act, 1925, s. 10, Class D (1)]

The Act of 1881, by s. 41, abolished the duty of 1 per cent. payable by lineal ancestors or descendants, in cases where the duty on affidavit for probate had been paid; and the (English) Finance Act, 1894, by s. 1 directed that this duty should not be levied in respect of property chargeable with estate duty (see that title).

The (English) Act of 1888 imposed an additional duty of 10s. per cent. where the successor is the lineal issue or ancestor of the predecessor, and of 1l. 10s. per cent. in other cases; merged in estate duty by the Finance Act, 1894.

By the (English) Finance (1909-10) Act, 1910, succes-sion duty, in the case of successions arising as mentioned in s. 58 (4) of the Act, is payable at the amended rates mentioned in that s., and, subject to the provisions of sub-s. (2) thereof, is payable on the death of a tenant for life, notwithstanding that the successors are husband or wife or lineal descendants and that estate duty is payable.

The (English) Acts apply to both personal and real property, but one of the principal changes effected by the Act of 1853 was that real property became for the first time dutiable upon a succession after death, as no probate duty was then payable in respect of it. Consult Hanson; Rouse's Practical Man. 19th Edn.; and see Chitty's Statutes, tit. 'Death Duties.' See DEATH DUTIES and LEGACY DUTY.