Wealth-tax valuation of solicitor-firm receivables treated enforceable professional bills as assets, despite cash accounting and no actual market sale.

For wealth-tax purposes, solicitor-firm outstandings were treated as assets because a debt due on enforceable bills for professional services is property and a chose in action, even if the precise amount may be disputed or realised later. Their inclusion was not defeated by the absence of an actual open market sale, since valuation is made on a notional open market. The firm's cash-basis accounting also did not govern wealth-tax computation, which looks to assets on the valuation date rather than income-recognition method. The valuation and balance-sheet adjustments were therefore upheld, and no exclusion or reduction was permitted on the stated grounds.

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Issues: (i) Whether the solicitor-firm's outstandings constituted assets includible in the net wealth of the assessee's share therein; (ii) whether such outstandings were to be excluded or reduced because they were not debts, were not capable of open-market sale, or were omitted from the firm's cash-basis accounts; (iii) whether the valuation of the outstandings and the adjustment to the balance-sheet under the Wealth-tax Act were .

Issue (i): Whether the solicitor-firm's outstandings constituted assets includible in the net wealth of the assessee's share therein.

Analysis: Property of every description is an asset under the Wealth-tax Act, and a debt due to an assessee is property. A debt is not confined to a presently payable quantified sum; it includes a present obligation to pay an ascertainable sum in future. The bills raised for professional services, though subject to taxation as to quantum, represented enforceable claims and therefore choses in action capable of assignment.

Conclusion: The outstandings were assets and were includible in the net wealth of the assessee's share.

Issue (ii): Whether such outstandings were to be excluded or reduced because they were not debts, were not capable of open-market sale, or were omitted from the firm's cash-basis accounts.

Analysis: The open-market test under the valuation provision is not defeated because no actual market sale exists; valuation proceeds on a notional open market. The cash system of accounting does not control wealth-tax computation, because wealth-tax is concerned with assets on the valuation date, not with accounting treatment of income. The fact that recovery may be subject to taxation of the bill or that the debt may be disputed does not destroy the character of the claim as an asset.

Conclusion: The objections based on absence of a market, cash accounting, and alleged non-debt character failed.

Issue (iii): Whether the valuation of the outstandings and the adjustment to the balance-sheet under the Wealth-tax Act were proper.

Analysis: The Wealth-tax Officer is empowered to adopt the net value of a business having regard to the balance-sheet and to make such adjustments as the circumstances require. The assessee's possible non-entitlement on a future contingency did not affect the valuation on the relevant date, and no deduction was permissible merely because the firm followed the cash system or because income-tax might arise later.

Conclusion: The valuation method and the adjustment to the balance-sheet were upheld.

Final Conclusion: The reference was answered by holding that the solicitor-firm's outstandings were taxable assets in computing the assessee's net wealth and that no reduction or exclusion on the stated grounds was permissible.

Ratio Decidendi: For wealth-tax purposes, a debt due to an assessee is an asset if it represents an existing enforceable obligation to pay an ascertainable sum, and its inclusion is not controlled by the assessee's accounting method or the absence of an actual open market.

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