HC Deb 20 September 1939 vol 351 cc960-1W
Sir H. Williams

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer the respective amounts of Estate Duty payable in respect of an estate of £10,000 left by a soldier killed in action and by an air-raid precautions worker killed in an air raid?

Sir J. Simon

The amount of Estate Duty payable in respect of an estate of £10,000 is, in a case in which no relief of any kind is due, £400. In the case of a soldier killed in action no duty is payable if he is of a rank up to and including the rank of lance-sergeant. If he is of a higher rank than lance-sergeant and his estate passes to his widow, lineal descendants, lineal ancestors, brothers and sisters or descendants of brothers and sisters, the first £5,000 of the estate is exempt from Estate Duty and there is a relief on the remainder of the estate the amount of which is dependent upon the age of the deceased. In the case put by my hon. Friend of an estate of £10,000 duty would be chargeable only on £5,000 and the amount of duty payable would depend upon the age at death.