PROBATE AND LEGACY DU TIES. These duties yield a sum ex ceeding two millions a-year. The legacy duty is charged on legacies of the value of 20/. and upwards out of personal estate or charged upon real estate, and upon every share of residue. Legacy to a hus band or wife is exempt from duty. To a child or parent, or any lineal descendant or ancestor of the deceased, the duty is 11. per cent.; to a brother or sister or their descendants, 3/. per cent ; to an uncle or aunt or their descendants, Si. per cent. ; to a great uncle or great aunt or their descendants, 61. per cent.; to any other relation or any stranger in blood, 10/. per cent. The probate duty is pay able on the total sum left by the deceased. For sums above 20/. and not exceeding 11:101. the duty is 10s. if there is a will ; and if there is no will the duty of 10s. is chargeable on sums of 20/. and not ex ceeding 50/. The duties continue to in crease according to a certain scale up to 1,000,000/. The following tables show the operation of the legacy and probate duties for nearly half a century ; and in Porter's ' Progress of the Nation,' vol. pp. 125-133, will be found some useful and interesting considerations on these duties as indications of the progress of national wealth: Probates, Administra Duty received tions, and from 1797 to Testamentar, 1845 inclusive. Legacies. Inventories.
England . . 36,696,279 29,110,230 Scotland . . 2,199,715 1,521,960 Ireland . . 829,499 1,182,705 £39,725,493 31,814,896 Duty received in 1845 England . . 1,178,866 963,322 Scotland . . 88,073 66,631 Ireland . . 61,629 65,852 - £1,328,568 1,095,805 Return, showing the Amount of Capital on which the several Rates of Legacy Duty were paid in Great Britain in the Year 1845, and an Abstract of the Total Amount paid under each Rate since 1797: 1845. 1797-1845.
Per Cent. Per Cent.
11. . 24,087,848 11. . 662,775,286 21. 10s. 152,493 21.• 20,716,610 31. . 14,599,335 21. 10s. 70,683,131 9,774 31. . 348,364,319 51. . 1,802,196 41. . 12,666,479 1 6!. . 318,359 51. . 50,804,505 81. . 22,778 61. . 17,797,836 101. . 4,606,925 81. . 11,813,294 101. . 143,798,047 Total . £45,599,714 Total . £1,339,419.511