HC Deb 15 July 1958 vol 591 c1167
Mr. Maudling

I beg to move, in page 20, line 45, at the end to insert: (10) In relation to a purchase from a body of persons established for public or charitable purposes only, or from the trustees of a trust so established, references to one year before the death shall be substituted for the references in subsections (1) and (8) of this section to five years before the death. Clause 25 charges Estate Duty where the life tenant of settled funds purchases an interest in expectancy therein and dies within five years of the purchase. The Amendment reduces the period within which liability can arise from five years to one year, where the interest is purchased from a body established for public or charitable purposes only.

The Amendment is in satisfaction of an undertaking given by my right hon. Friend the Solicitor-General in Committee. There was an Amendment moved at that time by my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Darwen (Mr. Fletcher-Cooke), which he withdrew on the promise by my right hon. and learned Friend of a suitably worded Amendment to be put down on Report. This Amendment, therefore, is in pursuance of that undertaking given during the Committee stage.

Sir T. Low

As I understand, in accepting the proposal put forward by my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Darwen (Mr. Fletcher-Cooke), the Government mean one of the effects to be the shortening from five years to one year of the liability of trustees of settlements which has been placed upon them for the first time in this Bill. It does not relieve them of the liability, but it shortens the period. That is a very good thing, but it does not go the whole way. I hope that my right hon. Friend will look at the whole problem of trustees' liability again and refer it to my noble Friend the Lord Chancellor, who gave eight reasons, in 1950, why trustees in these cases should never be saddled with this liability.

Amendment agreed to.