Estate Duty treatment of insurance premiums: payments under a Married Women's Property Act policy were not a gift under section 9(1).

Section 9(1) of the Estate Duty Act, 1953 was construed as covering an immediate gift inter vivos. On that reading, insurance premium payments made to an insurer under a policy governed by the Married Women's Property Act were not a gift to the wife merely because the policy benefited her, and they were not a disposition in her favour for section 9(1) purposes. The Tribunal relied on earlier authority supporting that view. The premium payments were therefore outside section 9(1), and the estate duty addition was deleted.

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Issues: Whether the insurance premia paid under a policy governed by the Married Women's Property Act could be treated as a gift to the wife within the meaning of section 9(1) of the Estate Duty Act, 1953, and brought to estate duty, or whether the amount was outside section 9(1) and relevant only for section 34(3).

Analysis: Section 9(1) was read as referring to an immediate gift inter vivos. On that construction, premium payments made to the insurer could not be characterised as a gift to the wife merely because the policy was for her benefit. The view was supported by the earlier tribunal decision relied upon by the assessee, and the reasoning that such premium payments did not amount to a disposition in favour of the beneficiary within the meaning of section 9(1).

Conclusion: The premium payments were not a gift within section 9(1) of the Estate Duty Act, 1953, and the addition was rightly deleted.

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