The Gazette 1967/71

Tax Law " A claim by a dance musician to deduct the expenses of an operation to his little finger in computing his tax able profits was rejected because he played the guitar as a hobby as well as a part-time profession. Ch.D. 26/10/69 Prince v. Mapp (Inspector of Taxes). The "relevant profits" on which a United Kingdom company can obtain relief from double taxation on divi dends paid to it by a foreign resident subsidiary company were held to be the profits shown in the subsidiary com pany's accounts and not the profits computed for the purposes of foreign tax. House of Lords 16/7/69 Bowater Paper Corporation Ltd. v. Murgatroyd Bowater, &c., v. I.R.C. Where property valued at £150,000 was conveyed to a trading company for less than its value, the figure to be brought into the company's trading account was the price actually paid, £72,000. No other figure could be substituted unless the contract of sale and the price were colourable or derisory. Ch.D. 15/7/69 Jacgilden (Weston Hall) Ltd. v. Castle (Inspector of Taxes) The only income of a child for the purposes of restricting child allowances to which his parent would otherwise be entitled is that which is chargable to tax, and therefore a child's income from an overseas em ployment, which is not remitted to this country and thus is not chargeable to tax, is not "income" for the purposes of section 212 of the Income Tax Act, 1952. House of Lords 25/7/69 Mapp (Inspector of Taxes) v. Oram. Ex gratia payments received by a firm of chartered accountants as compensation for the loss of six auditor- ships were held not to be taxable as part of their profes sional receipts. Ch.D. 25/11/69 Walker (Inspector of Taxes) v. Carnaby Harrower Barham & Pykett. Mr. Michael Bucks, a partner in N.M. Rothchilds & Sons, failed in his claim for earned income relief on that part of his share of the partnership income repre sented by dividends and interest received by the firm in the course of its trade as merchant bankers, but on which tax had been deducted under Cases III, IV and V of Schedule D. The other partners were four members of the Rotchs- child family, two other individuals and two companies, Rothschilds Continuation Ltd., and Second Continuation Ltd. Ch.D. 12/12069 Bucks v. Bowers (Inspector or Taxes). Purchase tax is payable by publishers of diaries which are supplied free of charge to a minister of a church for distribution among members. Ct. of Appeal 18/11/69 Warwickshire Publishing Co. Ltd. v. Commissioners of Customs and Excise. Takeover negotiations in progress, even though un known to the public and to the Stock Exchanges, were held to be special circumstances in consequence of which prices of shares or securities quoted on the London Stock Exchange were by themselves not a proper measure of market value for the purposes of assessing 89

Planning Outline planning permissions granted to would-be developers of and in Kent in 1952 and 1953 were held by a majority of the House of Lords to have ceased to subsist because a time condition, attached to almost all such permissions granted by Kent County Council and other planning authoritie since about 1950, which pro vided that the permission "shall cease to have effect" after three years unless the planning authority within that period had approved and notified their approval of detailed plans submitted by the developers, was intra vires the Town and County Planning Act, 1947 and the General Development Order 1950, and did not cut down the developers' right of appeal to the Minister if they acted reasonably and were refused approval within the three-year period or such extensions of it as the planning authority granted. House of Lords 16/12/69 Kent County Council v. Kingsway Investments (Kent) Ltd. Same v. Kenworthy. Privilege No civil action for damages, however framed, can be brought against a witness for anything said in the wit ness box in the course of judicial proceedings, for public policy requires that a witness shall be immune from civil action. When, therefore, a silicitor acting for an accused person in criminal proceedings., having failed to serve a witness summons on a doctor whose evidence was desired at the trial, instructed council during the trial to apply to the judge for a bench warrant for the doctor's arrest and then stated in the witness box that the doctor had wilfully evaded service of the summons—which the doc tor denied—the Court held that the proposed action by the doctor for damages for injuries suffered by reason of the solicitor's instructions and evidence, and his. cinse- quent arrest and detention was not maintainable. Ct. of Appeal 15/7/69 Roy v. Prior. Shipping By the maritime law of England and of the world, where a salvor has done much good in saving a vessel in distress but in course of the alvage operation has done her damage by his negligence, the damage is. taken into account in two ways: first, the salvage reward is calculated on the salved value and is therefore less on account of the damage; and, secondly, the damage may be further reduced by deductig part, or even the whole if it from the reward. But the salvor is not liable to a counter-clair for damages. Ct. of Appeal 31/10/69 The Tojo Maru. Solicitors A solicitor acting on behalf of the lesee of premises under a lease within the protection of the Leasehold Property (Repairs) Act, 1938, acted improperly when, on his client's instructions, he refused to disclose the lessee's name and address, to the landlords when they were seeking to bring an action for forfeiture and dama ges for breach of the repairing covenants in the lease, for there is no privilege entitling a solicitor to refuse to give a client's name to the court or to interest parties. Ct. of Appeal Pascall and Another v. Galinski and Others.