SUCCESSION is one of the death duties. It is payable by a person (termed the " successor ") who succeeds, upon the death of another, to real property or to the income thereof. The rate varies according to the relationship of the successor to the deceased ; it may be paid by instalments. In this con nection the term " real property " includes all freehold, copyhold, custonaary, leasehold and other hereditaments, whether corporeal or incorporeal.
The husband or wife of the predecessor is not chargeable with succession duty ; and a successor, whose husband or wife is of a nearer relationship to the predecessor, is chargeable with succession duty at the rate at which such husband or wife would be chargeable. The relations of the husband or wife of the pre decessor are chargeable with succession duty at 10 per cent., unless themselves related in blood to the predecessor.
Lineal issue or lineal ancestors of the predecessor, who would otherwise be chargeable with succession duty at the rate of one per cent., are exempt where the property passes under the deceased's will or intestacy, or under his disposition or any devolution from him, or under any other disposition under which respec tively estate duty under the Finance Act, 1894, has been paid. Lineal issue or lineal ancestors of the predecessor are chargeable with succession duty at the rate of one per cent. where the property is chattel leasehold, and passes on the deceased's death under a will or intestacy under which probate duty according to any of the scales in force prior to the Customs and Inland Revenue Act, 1881, has been properly paid in respect of such property. Where probate or account
duty has been paid in accordance with the Customs and Inland Revenue Act, 1881, in respect of such property, lineal issue and lineal ancestors of the pre decessor are not chargeable with succession duty in respect thereof as passing to them under the will, or other disposition, or intestacy, under which such duty was paid.
It should be observed that by section 18 (1) of the Finance Act, 1894, where the deceased died after the 1st August 1894, and the successor is com petent to dispose of the real property comprised in his succession, " the duty shall be a charge on the property, and shall be payable by the same instalments as are authorised by this Act for estate duty on real property, with interest at the rate of 3 per cent. per annum ; and the first instalment shall be payable and the interest shall begin to run at the expiration of twelve months after the date on which the successor became entitled in possession to his succession or to the receipt of the income and profit thereof ; AND AFTER THE EXPIRATION OF THE SAID