Scottish Court of Session Decisions

In this case. David Rogers, master mariner, appealed to the Income-Tax Commissioners for the Kirkcaldy district of Fifeshire, against an assessment under Schedule (D) of the Income—Tax Acts for the year ending April 5, 1879, on the sum of £240. It appeared that he had been absent from Great Britain in command of his ship during the whole year of assessment, but that he possessed in his own name a house at Innerleven, in Fifeshire, where his wife and family had resided during the year in question, that he had no dwelling-house in any other country, and that he would return to Great Britain when ordered by his employers, as he had no present intention of residing out of it.

By 5 and 6 Vict. cap. 35 (Property Tax Act), sec. 39, it was enacted “that any subject of Her Majesty whose ordinary residence shall have been in Great Britain, and who shall have departed from Great Britain and gone into any parts beyond the seas, for the purpose only of occasional residence, at the time of the execution of this Act, shall be deemed, notwithstanding such temporary absence, a person chargeable to the duties granted by the Act as a person actually residing in great Britain, and shall be assessed and charged accordingly (in manner hereinafter directed) upon the whole amount of his profits or gains, whether the same shall arise from property in Great Britain or elsewhere, or from any allowance, annuity, or stipend (except as herein is excepted), or from any profession, employment, trade, or vocation in Great Britain or elsewhere.”

The Commissioners confirmed the assessment.

The appellant having obtained a Case for the opinion of the Court of Exchequer, argued—This case was not within Young v. Inland Revenue, July 10, 1875, 2 R. 925, inasmuch as here the appellant had been absent from Great Britain during the entire year of assessment. [The Lord President referred to Brown v. M'Callum, Feb. 14, 1845, 7 D. 423.]

The respondent was not called on.

At advising—