§ MR. LONSDALE (Armagh, Mid.)I beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Ex-chequer whether he is aware that persons succeeding to property, agreements for the sale of which have been made under The Irish Land Act, 1903, suffer hardship in being required to pay death duties cash down on the property as personalty, although the purchase price cannot be obtained and the owners are receiving only 3½per cent. interest on the capital sum pending the sanctioning of the advance; and whether, in such cases, the property can be treated as realty until the money is actually paid over, and one-eighth of the duty only charged until the capital sum is received, when the remainder of the duty should be collected.
§ MR. ASQUITHIt is not the case that the property represented by an agreed sale of the kind described is 671 treated as personal property on which the estate duty must be paid in one sum. The Board of Inland Revenue are quite willing to accept payment by instalments in accordance with the provisions of Section 6 (8) of the Finance Act, 1894, pending completion of the sale. But the payment even of the instalments may sometimes be difficult for the responsible persons to provide, and, where this is the case, the Board, with the approval of the Treasury, would be disposed to say that the annual (or semi-annual) payments may be limited to the amount of interest due on the unpaid portion of the estate duty, until completion of the sale, when the whole amount of the estate duty outstanding should be paid out of the purchase money.