This matter involved a transfer of a residential property from a 'family company' trustee in liquation to the taxpayer. The taxpayer claimed that the company's initial acquisition of the property was as trustee and that the subsequent transfer of the property to him was therefore exempt under sections 34 or 36 of the Duties Act 2000. Broadly speaking those sections exempt certain transfers of property from trustees to beneficiaries. However, in a judgment delivered on 23 October 2009, the Supreme Court found that section 34 did not to apply in this instance because the taxpayer had not provided all of the money for the initial purchase of the property in the company's name. The exemption contained 'no provision for apportionment' the court observed. The taxpayer's claim under section 36 also failed because, although the court accepted that there was a 'fixed trust' within the meaning of the section, the transfer had not been made to the taxpayer in his capacity as beneficiary of that trust but rather in his capacity as the sole shareholder of that company as part of its liquidation.
