Ballarat Trustees Executors and Agency Co Ltd v Federal Commissioner of Taxation [1950] HCA 19

Mienous Dist

Barristers. tndigenous Tmatv For Barristers (boa) SI" Tat Rr '43s (2902) 12 a8 FoR 3 Metnourne, June 9; BRISBANE, June 20.

Kitto J.

FEDERAL COMMISSIONER OF TAXATION . ResponpEN

HIGH COURT [1950.

{HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA.)

BALLARAT TRUSTEES EXECUTORS AND

AGENCY COMPANY LIMITED APPELLANT ;

AND

state Duty (Cth.)—Assessment—Haemptions—* Fund . . . for the relief of Bequest of fund to intermediate hospital

persons in necessitous circumstances to provide free accommodation for persons unable to pay any fees or such fees as private patients in the hospital usually required to pay—Estate Duty Assess- ment Act 1914-1942 (No. 22 of 1914—No. 18 of 1942), s. 8 (1), (5)-

By his will the deceased directed his trustee to pay to a named hospital a sum of money to be invested and the income thereof to be used to provide free accommodation at the hospital to persons who in the opinion of the

deserving people who w

e unable to pay any

board of management wei

fees or such fees as private patients in the hospital were usually required to

pay. 'The hospital, which was not conducted as a profit-making institution,

was governed by rules which empowered it to receive as patients persons able to pay for private or intermediate accommodation. Patients were charged from £11 to £17 per week according to the type of accommodation provided.

Held (i) that on the construction of the will the income of the fund might be applied wholly for the relief of persons able to pay some, though not all, of the fees charged by the hospital; (ii) that such persons included many who were not in necessitous circumstances within the meaning of sub-s. (5) of s. 8 of the Estate Duty Assessment Act 1914-1942 ; (iii) that therefore the

fund was not exempt from estate duty under that sub-section.

AppraL from assessment to estate duty.