If the rent paid by a working lessee exceeds the rent customary in the district, and partly represents a return for expenditure by the proprietor which should have been borne by the lessee, the Commissioners may substitute as the rental value such rent as would have been the customary rent if the expenditure had been borne by the lessee.
Valuation.—For this purpose all minerals are treated as a separate parcel of land. Where, however, the minerals are not comprised in a mining lease or Leieg worked, they will bo treated as having no value as minerals, unless the proprietor of the minerals, in his return, specifies the nature of the minerals and his estimate of their capital value. Minerals which are comprised in a mining lease or are being worked are treated as a separate parcel of land, not only for the purposes of valuation, but also for the purpose of the assessment of duty. These provisions as to valuation do not apply to minerals which wore, on the 30th April 1909, either comprised in a mining lease or being worked by the proprietor, so long as they are for the time being either com prised in a mining lease or being worked by the proprietor. Nor do they apply to any minerals which cease, for a temporary period not exceeding two years, to be comprised in a mining lease or to be worked.
Assessment —E very proprietor of minerals and every person to whom any rent is paid in respect of any right to work minerals or of any mineral way-leave must furnish the Commissioners with particulars of the amount he receives. A proprietor who is working his minerals himself must furnish particulars of the minerals worked. These particulars should be sent in on receipt of notice from the Commissioners within the time specified by the notice (not less than thirty days), and in the form required. Default herein is met by a penalty of £50, to be recovered in the High Court. The duty is assessed some time after the 1st January in the year for which it is charged.
By whet Duty is Paid and Borne,—The duty is recoverable as a debt doe to the Crown from the proprietor of the minerals where he works them. In any other case it is the immediate lessor of the working lessee who is liable for payment. As between the latter parties the itnmediate lessor cannot, by any contract whatever, evade the burden of the duty.
DedUCtiOnS.—There aro throe cases in which deductions may be claimed :—(1) Where an immediate lessor pays duty, and is himself a lessee of the right to work the minerals or of the way-leave in respect of which the duty is paid ; (2) where the duty has been charged on a rental value based on a rent which has been substituted for tho rent itetually payable ; and (3) where the rental value with reference to which increment value duty is charged has been reduced for the purposes of the collection of that duty.
In tte first case the immediate lessor may deduct from tho rent payable by him to his lessor a sum equal to the duty on a rental value of the same amount as the rent payable. Any person from whose rent any such deduction is made may make a similar deduction from any rent paid by him. The person receiving the rent from which a deduction may be made must allow the deduction, and the person making the deduction will be discharged from the payment of an amount of rent equal to the amount deducted. A contract for the payment of rent without allowing sueli deduction is void. A penalty of £50 is imposed upon any one who refuses to allow a deduction. In the second and third cases the Commissioners, on the application of a lessor from whose rent a deduc tion may be made in respect of this duty or increment value duty, as the ease may be, will make a corresponding substitution or deduction as regards that rent, if they consider that the grounds for the substitution or deduction, as the case may bo, are applicable in the case of the rent with respect to which the application is made.
Special Provisions as to Increment Value Duty and Reversion sion duty is not charged on tho determination of a mining lease. No increment value duty is charged on the grant of such a lease, or in respect of minerals comprised in e, mining lease, or being worked, except as a duty payable annually as hereafter set out. Nor is tho increment value duty charged in tho case of minerals which were, on the 30th April, 1909, either comprised in a mining lease, or being worked by the proprietor, so long SB tho minerals aro for the time being either comprised in such a lease or being worked by the proprietor. The foregoing exemption applies although the minerals cease, for a period not exceeding two years, to be comprised in a mining lease or to bo worked.