Gift-tax treatment of family expenses turns on transfer of property, not mere expenditure; marriage costs excluded, air-ticket taxed.

Expenditure on family marriage did not amount to a taxable gift under the Gift-tax Act because a gift requires a voluntary transfer of existing property without consideration to a donee who acquires property, and marriage expenses involved no such transfer. The air-ticket purchased for a grandchild was treated as a transfer of movable property to the beneficiary and therefore fell within the statutory definition of gift. On that basis, the marriage expenditure was not taxable as a gift, while the air-ticket expenditure was taxable as a gift.

---

---

Issues: Whether expenditure incurred by the assessee on the marriages of her granddaughters and the air-ticket purchased for another granddaughter constituted a taxable gift under the Gift-tax Act, 1958.

Analysis: A gift under the Act requires a voluntary transfer of existing movable or immovable property without consideration, and the transfer must be to a donee who acquires property. Marriage expenses, even if incurred in discharge of a family obligation or for the indirect benefit of the beneficiaries, did not involve any transfer of property to the son or the granddaughters and therefore could not be treated as a gift. The air-ticket, however, was a movable property transferred by the assessee to the grandchild and answered the statutory definition of gift.

Conclusion: The marriage expenditure of Rs. 40,000 was not a gift, but the air-ticket expenditure of Rs. 7,840 was a gift and was taxable as such.

---