§ Mr. MEAGHERasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the official construction of the law respecting Estate Duty, as amended by the Finance Act, 1914, regards property in which a deceased person had a limited interest only, under a disposition not made by himself, as fully aggregable with his other property for the purpose of determining the rate of Estate Duty; and, if so, whether, having regard to the fact that before the said Finance Act of 1914 any such property as aforesaid was either exempt from Estate Duty on such a death by Estate Duty having been paid on the disponer's death or, if liable to Estate Duty by the disponer having died before the commencement of the Finance Act, 1894, obtained, as regards aggregation, the benefit of special provisions of which the subsisting one completely exempts the said property from aggregation on death of limited owner, and, seeing that the aggregation of such property in the new circumstances created by the Finance Act, 791W 1914, involves hardship, especially when such property does not pass to a near relative of the limited owner, he will at the first convenient opportunity introduce a provision operating as if enacted in the Finance Act, 1914, exempting such property from aggregation on the death of the limited owner, either unconditionally, as provided in Section 16 of the Finance Act, 1907, in terms co-extensive with the heretofore liability of such property to Estate Duty, or exempting the same in so far as it does not pass to a spouse, descendant, or ancestor of the limited owner, as in Section 4 of the Finance Act, 1914, so provided?
§ Mr. LLOYD GEORGEThe exemption from aggregation in certain circumstances conferred by Section 16 of the Finance Act, 1907, to which my hon. Friend refers, will apply equally in the case of the fresh Estate Duty in respect of settled property imposed by the Finance Act, 1914. I regret that I am unable to promise any further concession.