The Gazette 1964/67

tates of which his deceased was executor or trustee and the position of the administration of these estates, if any. Is it likely that the Revenue Com missioners would seek to hold the last executor responsible for duties payable out of previous estates of which he knows nothing at the time of taking out the grant to his testator? 1 should be obliged if you will summarise the statutory provisions under which estate, legacy and suc cession duty become barred by lapse of time, because this is a material consideration in con nection with the present problem. Will the Revenue Commissioners be barred if they fail to put in a claim for outstanding death duties in reply to a statutory notice to creditors on behalf of the executor of testator B, the death duties being chargeable on the estate of testator A of whom B was executor? 15th February 1967, Revenue Commissiov.ers to Society : Reference to your letter of 31st January. I think it reasonable to assume that the papers of a deceased executor would contain inditia which would alert his own executor to the exist ence of the previous estate. The latter would naturally have examined these for the purpose of the extraction of his own grant. It seems to me improbable that he would be entirely unaware of the position. In a case in which section 8 (3) of the Finance Act 1894, might operate so that liability would be limited to assets which the executor by chain of representation has received or might "but for his own neglect or default" have received, if there had been assets which he might have got into his own possession it would be a question of fact whether his failure to do so was a consequence of his own neglect or default. If he had been, through no fault of his own, genuinely unaware of the matter, and was no longer in a position to get in the assets it appears to me that he could rely on the section. Debts due to the State are not bound by Lord St. Leonard's Act and the Revenue Commissioners are accordingly not affected by the publication of a statutory notice to creditors. You may recall that, in May 1960, this was the subject of a discussion between your Society and the Revenue. The following are the provisions which put a time limit on claims for death duties :— Legacy Duty and Succession Duty Section 12 of the Customs and Inland Revenue Act, 1889 protects purchasers and mortgagors

against claims for Succession Duty after the ex piration of six years from the date of notice to the Commissioners of the death which lets in the succession or, in the absence of such notice, after the expiration of twelve years from such death. Section 12 of that Act bars a claim for duty under a document (other than a testamentary document) after the lapse of six years from date of notice to the Commissioners of the fact which gives rise to a claim for duty under the document if an attested copy of the document has been deposited with the Commissioners. Section 14 of the same Act relates to claims under a testamentary document admitted to pro bate or under letters of administration. Lender this section the limit is also six years from the date of the settlement of the account in respect of which duty is payable, provided the account is a full and true one and is correct to the best of the knowledge and belief of the accountable party. Estate Duty The above provisions are applied to Estate Duty by Section 8 (2) of the Finance Act, 1894. Generally An accountable party is also, of course, pro tected in respect of specified property by the issue of a certificate of discharge in respect of that property. The relevant sections are Section 12 of the Customs and Inland Revenue Act 1880 (as to Legacy Duty and Succession Duty) and Section 11 of the Finance Act, 1894 (as to Estate Duty). Correction In the article of similar title in the last number of the GAZETTE p. 106, col 1, line 22 for A read E. THE FUTURE PATTERN OF THE PROFESSION Part I By SIR THOMAS LUND, C.B.E. (Secretary to the Law Society, England) Introduction Gazing into the crystal ball is not to be recom mended except when the vision is of the so far distant future that the soothsayer can safely rely upon having passed on by the time that the truth is revealed. Nevertheless, the writer proposes 119