The Gazette 1982

GAZETTE

april 1982

BOOK REVIEW

It is the inevitable fate of writers on tax matters to find that their work is obsolescent by the time it leaves the Printing Press and in this respect the Authors appear to have been no more fortunate than their predecessors. As their book went to press it was announced that substantial alterations in C.A.T. would be made in their forthcoming Finance Bill. The Finance Bill has now been introduced, and provides for a radical curtailment ofthe existing exempt thresholds. It seems to the writer that, where the Parliamentary draftsman does not have the awful precedent before him of an English Finance Act, he makes a much better Fist of coherent draftsmanship. The Capital Acquisitions Tax Act is considered by many to be one of the best drafted Fiscal statutes to have been enacted in thisjurisdiction. Certainly the general view of practitioners in this area is that it is extremely tightly drawn. The Revenue no doubt would respond to this com- ment by stating that they do not consider discretionary trusts appropriately taxed. In fact there are many disadvan- tages to leaving property indefinitely in a discretionary trust, amongst which are that, with inflation and no increase in thresholds since 1975, (in fact with the threatened sub- stantial reduction in such thresholds by limiting any donee to £ 150,000 for gifts or inheritance fromwhatever source) the eventual cost of extracting property from a discretion- ary trust may be greatly magnified. The Capital Gains Tax implications of holding property in a discretionary trust must also be considered and ifthere is income accumulating in the discretionary trust, there may be an income tax problem and/or a problem of income being treated as capital when paid out to the Beneficiaries. A better view of discretionary trusts is to regard them as useful vehicles for a holding operation, particularly in the case of a young family, until trustees can decide howbest to appropriate the property. The question of the taxation of such trusts has now been referred to the Commission on taxation and it will be interesting to see their proposals. The text opens with a short dictionary of legal terms, which brings home to one the problems faced by Account- ants and others not well versed in the Law of Property and Trusts in seeking to grapple with a tax of this nature. Thereafter, having gone through the Act Chapter by Chap- ter and Section by Section, there are a series of Appendices setting out the forms and a list ofsecurities available for pay- ment of Inheritance Tax by way of transfer of securities (Gift Tax cannot so be paid) and the rates of Capital Acquisition Tax. One of the great attractions throughout the text is the Authors' constant use of working examples, by way of explanation and elucidation of the legal phraseology in the Statute. The Authors are to be commended on their industry and erudition and it is hoped that they will not be too discour- aged by changes in the law to produce a revised edition speedily.

Lawyers Law Books — D. Raistrick— Second (Cumulative) Supplement 1982 — Professional Books Ltd. £7.50 (Sterling) The appearance of a second cumulative supplement to Lawyers Law Books first published in 1977 shows com- mendable dedication. The work itself, together with its supplements, is a most useful index of law books and other major publications, primarily of United Kingdom legal literature, but also including many references to allied subjects and to related legal systems. It is not, perhaps, a book which all practices might regard as essential, but it is certainly one which practitioners should bear in mind when faced with the need to brief themselves rapidly on some legal topic previously outside their ken. It is all too easy to pick holes in any publication of this sort, but the writer was somewhat nettled to Find no refer- ence to O'Reilly & Redmond: Cases & Materials of the Irish Constitution in the section headed Republic of Ireland, which did contain J. M. Kelly: The Irish Con- stitution and O'Casey J. P. (Sic) "Office of the Attorney General in Ireland" and "Local Government in the Repub- lic of Ireland. 1978 (Sic)". The feeling turned to amuse- ment when it was realised that neither Wylie: Irish Conveyancing Law nor Wylie: Irish Land Law, Second Edition published by Professional Books itself were included in the supplement.

John F. Buckley

Capital Acquisitions Tax

By Norman Bale and John Condon. Published by the Institute of Taxation in Ireland. PP 244,1982.

It is a pleasure to welcome this excellent Book on Capital Acquisitions Tax, the First of its kind. The work is directed mainly towards students but also will be extremely useful to the Practitioner. The structure of the text is a commentary on a Section-by-Section (and sub- section-by-sub-section) basis and, where the matter is suf- ficiently complex to warrant it, an enlarged commentary by way of overview. Where appropriate, references are given to relevant cases and the cross-referencing throughout the text to other relevant Sections is extremely valuable when one is seeking to research some point.

M. R. Curran

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