8

(2) Where any watch-case to which this Act applies is exported from and subsequently reimported into the United Kingdom, the exemption from assay conferred by this Act shall not be allowed unless the watch-ease is identified in the prescribed manner at the prescribed assay office as a watch-case to which such exemption attaches.

In this provision "prescribed" means prescribed by regulations made for the purpose by the Commissioners of Customs, and the regulations so made may provide for the removal of any watch-case in respect of which exemption is claimed to the prescribed assay office and for the payment of fees.

2. This Act may be cited as the Assay of Imported WatchCases (Existing Stocks Exemption) Act, 1907.

ACT of the British Parliament to grant certain duties of Customs and Inland Revenue, to alter other duties, and to amend the Law relating to Customs and Inland Revenue and the National Debt, and to make other provisions for the financial arrangements of the year.

[7 Edw. VII, c. 13.]

Most Gracious Sovereign,

[August 9, 1907.]

WE, Your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in Parliament assembled, towards raising the necessary supplies to defray your Majesty's public expenses, and making an addition to the public revenue, have freely and voluntarily resolved to give and grant unto Your Majesty the several duties hereinafter mentioned; and do therefore most humbly beseech Your Majesty that it may be enacted, and be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

PART I.-Customs and Excise.

1. The duty of customs payable on tea until the 14th day of May, 1907, under the Finance Act, 1906,* shall be deemed to have been continued as from that date and shall continue to be charged, levied, and paid until the 1st day of July, 1908, on the importation thereof into Great Britain or Ireland (that is to say) :—

Tea, the pound

fivepence.

2. The additional duties of customs on tobacco, beer, and spirits imposed by sections 2, 3, 4, and 5 of the Finance Act,

* 6 Edw. 7, c. 8.

1900* (including the increased duties imposed by section 5 of that Act), shall continue to be charged, levied, and paid, and the additional drawback allowed under the said section 4 shall continue to be allowed, until Parliament otherwise determine, and those duties and that drawback shall be deemed to have been continued as from the 1st day of July, 1907.

3. The additional duties of excise on beer and spirits imposed by sections 6 and 7 of the Finance Act, 1900, shall continue to be charged, levied and paid, and the additional drawback allowed under the said section 6 shall continue to be allowed, until Parliament otherwise determine, and those duties and that drawback shall be deemed to have been continued as from the 1st day of July, 1907.

4.-(1) The Commissioners of Customs and the Commissioners of Inland Revenue may jointly make regulations authorising the use of any means described in the regulations for ascertaining for any purpose the strength or weight of spirits.

(2) Where under any enactment Sykes's hydrometer is directed to be used or may be used for the purpose of ascertaining the strength or weight of spirits, any means so authorised by regulations may be used instead of Sykes's hydrometer and references to Sykes's hydrometer in any enactment shall be construed accordingly.

(3) Any regulations made under this section shall be published in the London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Gazettes, and shall take effect from the date of publication, or such later date as may be mentioned in the regulations for the purpose.

(4) The expression "spirits" in this section has the same meaning as in the Spirits Act, 1880.†

5. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in section 10 of the Revenue Act, 1883, and subject to the conditions there set forth, gold and silver plate imported into Great Britain or Ireland may be delivered into the hands of the officers of any assay office selected by the importer, though it be not the assay office nearest to the port of importation, and may, upon security being given to the satisfaction of the Commisssioners of Customs, be removed to the assay office without being in charge of an officer of customs.

PART II.-Stamps.

6. The limitation of the exemption numbered (2) under the heading Affidavit and Statutory Declaration in the First Schedule to the Stamp Act, 1891§, to affidavits or declarations made before a justice of the peace shall cease to have effect.

7. Any agreement for or relating to the supply of goods on hire, whereby the goods in consideration of periodical payments will or may become the property of the person to whom they are 63 & 64 Vict., c. 7. Vol. XCII, page 1249. +43 & 44 Vict., c. 24.

46 & 47 Vict, c. 55. § 54 & 55 Vict., c. 39.

supplied, shall be charged with stamp duty as an agreement, or,. if under seal (or in Scotland with a clause of registration), as. a deed, as the case requires, and the exemption numbered (3) under the heading "Agreement or any Memorandum of an Agreement," in the First Schedule to the Stamp Act, 1891 (which exempts agreements for the sale of goods), shall not apply in the case of any such instrument.

8.-(1) It is hereby declared, for the removal of doubts, that "a policy of insurance for any payment agreed to be made "by way of indemnity against loss or damage of or to any "property" within the meaning of the Stamp Act, 1891, includes. any notice or advertisement in a newspaper or other publication which purports to insure such payment.

(2) The provisions of section 116 of the said Act (which relates. to composition for stamp duty on policies of insurance against accident) shall apply to policies of insurance for any payment agreed to be made by way of indemnity against loss or damage. of or to any property as they apply to policies of insurance against accident.

(3) Section 11 of the Finance Act, 1899* (which relates to policies of insurance in respect of injury to workmen), shall be read as if two pounds were substituted for one pound as the amount of the annual premium therein mentioned.

9. So much of subsection (2) of section 80 of the Stamp Act, 1891, as prevents the stamping after execution of a letter or power of attorney or voting paper charged with the duty of one penny shall cease to apply as regards any such instrument which has been first executed at any place out of the United Kingdom, and accordingly any such instrument so executed after the commencement of this Act may be stamped after execution in accordance with section 15 of the said Act.

*

10. (1) Where it is shown to the satisfaction of the Commissioners that the loan capital issued by any local authority, corporation, company, or body of persons, in respect of which a statement has, after the commencement of this Act, been delivered to the Commissioners under section 8 of the Finance Act, 1899, has been wholly or partly applied for the purpose of the conversion or consolidation of then existing loan capital, that authority, corporation, company, or body of persons, as the case may be, shall be entitled to repayment in respect of the duty charged on the statement so delivered at the rate of two shillings for every hundred pounds of the capital to which the statement relates which is so shown to have been applied for the purpose of the conversion or consolidation of then existing loan capital; but this section shall not apply to any duty payable in respect of a mortgage or marketable security which has been paid on any trust deed or other document securing the loan capital which has been issued.

* 62 & 63 Vict., c. 9. Vol. XCI, page 1021.

(2) If it is represented to the Commissioners by any such local authority, corporation, company, or body of persons that loan capital about to be issued by them is to be applied, in whole or in part, for the purpose of the conversion or consolidation of existing loan capital, the Commissioners may postpone the time for the delivery of the statement and the payment of duty under section 8 of the Finance Act, 1899, until the capital has been issued or until such other time as the Commissioners think fit for the purpose of enabling the payment and repayment of the duty to take place as one transaction.

11. The duty payable under the Stamp Act, 1891, on any debenture or certificate for entitling any person to receive any allowance by way of drawback or otherwise payable out of the revenue of customs or excise, for or in respect of any goods, wares, or merchandise exported or shipped to be exported from the United Kingdom to any part beyond the sea, and on any certificate of any goods, wares, or merchandise having been duly entered inwards, which shall be entered outwards for exportation at the port of importation, or be removed from thence to any other port for the more convenient exportation thereof, where such certificate is issued for enabling a person to obtain a debenture or certificate entitling him to receive a drawback of any duty of customs, shall cease to be payable, and any such debentures or certificates shall not be liable to stamp duty.

PART III.-Death Duties.

12. The scale set out in the First Schedule to this Act shall, in the case of persons dying on or after the 19th day of April, 1907, be substituted for the scale of rates of estate duty set out in section 17 of the Finance Act, 1894* (in this Part of this Act referred to as the principal Act) :

Provided that where an interest in expectancy (within the meaning of Part I. of the principal Act) in any property has before the 19th day of April, 1907, been bonâ fide sold or mortgaged for full consideration in money or money's worth, then no other duty on that property shall be payable by the purchaser or mortgagee when the interest falls into possession than would have been payable if this section had not passed; and in the case of a mortgage any higher duty payable by the mortgagor shall rank as a charge subsequent to that of the mortgagee.

13. The power of the Commissioners under subsection (11) of section 8 of the principal Act to remit the payment of estate duty or interest thereon shall apply to the other duties which are included in the definition of death duties in subsection (3) of section 13 of that Act as well as to estate duty.

14. The Commissioners may, if they think fit, entertain any application made for the purpose of subsection (2) of section 11

* 57 & 58 Vict., c. 30.

of the principal Act (which relates to discharge from claims for estate duty), at whatever time the application is made; and, as respects any application so entertained, the provisions of that subsection shall have effect, notwithstanding that the application is made before the lapse of the two years mentioned in that subsection.

15. The deduction to be allowed under section 21 of the Finance Act, 1896,* in respect of death duties previously paid on property on which estate duty is payable shall, instead of being the amount of the duty paid or payable, be the amount which would have been payable on account of the duty if the duty were calculated on the value of the property on which estate duty is payable: Provided that, if as respects any such deduction the person by whom the duty is payable requires the Commissioners, on the first delivery of his account, to calculate the deduction as if this .section had not passed, the deduction shall be so calculated.

16. In the case of persons dying on or after the 19th day of April, 1907, any settled property which would, under subsection (2) of section 12 of the Finance Act, 1900,† be aggregated with other property so as to enhance the rate of duty to the limited extent provided in that section, shall, for the purposes of the principal Act, instead of being so aggregated, be treated as an estate by itself.

PART IV.-Local Taxation Account.

17. (1) The grants specified in the Second Schedule to this Act shall, instead of being charged in manner provided by the Acts relating to those grants, be charged on and paid out of the Consolidated Fund or the growing produce thereof, but in the case of grants which are payable during the continuance of any temporary Act only so long as that Act is continued.

(2) The proceeds of the local taxation (customs and excise) duties, and of the duties on local taxation licences (including any duty charged under subsection (1) of section 8 of the Locomotives on Highways Act, 1896) payable under any Act in force at the commencement of this Act into any local taxation account, shall, instead of being paid into that account, be paid into the Exchequer, and there shall be paid into any such local taxation account out of the Consolidated Fund or the growing produce thereof a sum equal to the amount which would have been paid into that account as the proceeds of the duties if this Act had not passed.

(3) Where under this section or under any other enactment the amount of any sum paid into any local taxation account is made to depend on the proceeds of the duties on local taxation licences, those proceeds shall be calculated, in the event of any * 59 & 60 Vict., c. 28. Vol. LXXXVIII, page 153. +63 & 64 Vict., c. 7. Vol. XCII, page 1249.

59 & 60 Vict., c. 36.