(South Tipperary) asked the Minister for Finance if he will give an estimate of the net loss of revenue which occurred over the past financial year by failure heretofore to provide the legal coverage envisaged by section 22 of the Finance Bill, 1965.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Estate Duty.
4.
It will be helpful in the first instance to emphasise the legal coverage envisaged by the section. The essential purpose of the proposed section 22 is threefold—
(1) to continue, if section 23 of the Bill is enacted, the existing exemption from estate duty of death benefits not exceeding £5,000 where such benefits are payable to the widow and dependent children;
(2) to preclude a liability to succession duty at 11½ per cent of death benefits payable under non-contributory schemes by providing that all death benefits should be deemed to be interests provided by the deceased and therefore within the charge to estate duty, in which case benefits not exceeding £5,000, payable to the widow and dependent children, would be exempt from estate duty;
(3) to bring under charge to estate duty payments, in the nature of death benefits, made under such arrangements as where a policy of assurance for a large amount may be effected by a family company on the life of a director for the benefit of the director's dependants who may be the other shareholders.
No figures are available on which to base an estimate of the amount of duty which would have been payable if benefits not caught by existing law had been under a charge for duty in the last financial year.