HUMPHREY (Surveyor of Taxes) v PEARE

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judge: K. B. Div.
• Judgment Date: 05 June 1913
• Court: King's Bench Division (Ireland)
• Date: 05 June 1913

Humphrey (Surveyor Of Taxes)

Appellant

and

Peare

Respondent (1)

K. B. Div.

CASES

DETERMINED BY

THE KING'S BENCH DIVISION

OF

THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE IN IRELAND,

AND ON APPEAL THEREFROM IN

THE COURT OF APPEAL,

AND BY

THE COURT FOR CROWN CASES RESERVED.

1913.

Revenue — Income tax — Negotiation fee paid to agent on sale under Land Purchase Acts — Income Tax Act, 1853 (16 & 17 Vict. c. 34), Sch. D. — Irish Land Act, 1903 (3 Edw. 7, c. 37), 23, sub-s. 12.

Held, that the commission was part of the annual gains and profits of the agent arising from his vocation as such agent, in respect of which he was assessable to income tax.

Case Stated pursuant to sect. 59 of the Taxes Management Act, 1880, for the opinion of the High Court of Justice in Ireland. The case set out as follows:—

“1. At a meeting of the Commissioners for the special purposes of the Income Tax Acts, held at the Court House, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, Ireland, on the 12th day of September, 1912, C. H. Peare of Carrick-on-Suir (hereinafter called the respondent) appealed against three several assessments under Schedule D of the Act 16 & 17 Vict. c. 34, respectively made upon him, namely (1) an assessment hereinafter referred to as No. 1 assessment, in the sum of £148; (2) an assessment hereinafter referred to as No. 2 assessment, in the sum of £261; and (3) an assessment, hereinafter referred to as No. 3 assessment, in the sum of £11. Of these three assessments, No. 1 had reference to the year ended the 5th day of April, 1910; No. 2, to the year ended 5th April, 1911, and No. 3, to the year ended 5th April, 1912, and all three were in respect of the profits or

gains which had been derived by Mr. Peare, the respondent, from fees earned by him and payable to him under sect. 23, sub-sect. 12, of the Irish Land Act, 1903, and by virtue of three several agreements, for his successful negotiations of the sale of certain estates in Ireland under the provisions of the last-mentioned Act, for which estates he was employed as agent by the vendors concerned.

“2. In the case of ‘No. 1’ estate, the vendors were Mrs. Frances Russell Mulcahy and others. In the case of ‘No. 2’ estate and ‘No. 3’ estate, full details have not been supplied by the respondent, but the estates are known, No. 2 as the ‘Sadleir’ estate, the vendor of which estate was Miss Annie M. Sadleir, and No. 3 as the ‘Bradshaw’ estate, the vendor of which estate was Mr. Robert Armstrong Bradshaw.

“3. In the case of the estates numbers 1 and 3, the amounts of the assessments, namely, £148 and £11, were the sums put upon the allocation schedules by the express authority of the vendors, and sanctioned by the Estates Commissioners, being 2½ per cent. of the purchase-money in each case respectively; and in the case of the No. 2 estate the amount of the assessment, namely £261, was arrived at in a precisely similar manner, save only that the Estates Commissioners sanctioned in this...