§ The rate of legacy and succession duties, where the beneficiary is a brother or sister or a descendant of a brother or sister of the deceased, will be raised from 3 per cent. to 5 per cent.; while the other legacy and succession duties, which at present vary from 5 to 10 per cent., according to the degree or absence of relationship, will be charged at the uniform rate of 10 per cent. ["Oh, oh."] Most of them are charged 10 per cent. at present. [An HON. MEMBER: "Not at all."] It is so. The present exemptions from the 1 per cent. legacy and succession duties now chargeable, where the beneficiary is a lineal ancestor or descendant of the deceased, will be abolished, and the duty extended to the case where a husband or wife takes the legacy or succession. In the cases of spouses and lineals, however, I propose to exempt from the new and reimposed duties all legacies and successions of whatever value in cases where the aggregated property passing on the death of the deceased does not exceed £15,000.
§ Exemption will also be allowed, whatever may be principal value of the aggregated property, wherever the amount of the legacy or succession itself does not exceed £1,000, or, if the person taking the legacy or succession is the widow of the deceased or a child under the age of 21 years, wherever the amount of such legacy or succession does not exceed £2,000. The changes will, like the new estate duty scale, operate only in the case of persons dying on or after the 30th instant; but as these duties are not as a rule payable until the end of the executor's year, I cannot count on receiving any additional revenue until 1910–11. I estimate the amount which the alterations will produce next year at £1,370,000, and that the yield will in course of time increase to £2,150,000.