Robertson v Commissioner of Taxation (Cth) [1952] HCA 71

High Court of Australia Williams, Kitto and Taylor JJ. Robertson v Commissioner of Taxation (Cth) [1952] HCA 71

ORDER Appeal allowed with costs. Order respondent to amend the assessment under appeal by including the 561,667 shares which the deceased held in the capital of MacRobertson Pty. Ltd. at the date of his death in his dutiable estate at the value of 14s. 5d. per share. Liberty to apply.

Cur. adv. vult.

The following written judgments were delivered:—

Dec. 18 Williams J.

Sir MacPherson Robertson, hereinafter called the deceased, died on 20th August 1945. On that date he held 561,667 shares of £1 each in the capital of MacRobertson Pty. Ltd., hereinafter called the company. For the purposes of Federal estate duty the respondent, the Commissioner of Taxation of the Commonwealth of Australia, valued these shares at 21s. 10d. per share. This is an appeal by the executors of the estate of the deceased from this valuation. They contend that the real value of the shares for the purposes of duty is 14s. 5d. per share. In valuing the shares at 21s. 10d., the respondent made use of s. 16A of the Estate Duty Assessment Act 1914-1947. This section has already been discussed to some extent in this Court by Williams J. in Federal Commissioner of Taxation v. Sagar [4] and by Latham C.J. in Federal Commissioner of Taxation v. Shaw [5] . The portion of the section relied on by the respondent in the present case is par. (a) of sub-s. (1). The text of the section, so far as material, is as follows:—

16a —(1) Where the Commissioner is of the opinion that it is necessary that the following provisions should apply for the purpose of assessing the value for duty of an estate for the purposes of this Act, the following provisions shall apply:—(a) the value of shares or stock in any company, whether incorporated in Australia or elsewhere, shall be determined upon the assumption that the memorandum and articles of association or rules of the company, at the date of death, satisfied the requirements prescribed by the Committee or governing authority of the Stock Exchange at the place where the share or stock register is situate for the purpose of enabling that company to be placed on the current official list of that Stock Exchange.