M'Innes v. Muat (Surveyor of Taxes)

Dugald M'Innes, wine and spirit merchant, 15 Rue-End Street, Greenock, appealed to the General Commissioners against an assessment to inhabited-house-duty made upon him for the year 1884–85, amounting to £2, 2s. 6d., being inhabited-house-duty at 6d per £ on £85, the annual value of a shop, store, and dwelling-house at 15 Rue-End Street, of which he was the proprietor and occupant. In the valuation-roll of the burgh of Greenock the annual value of the shop and store was entered at £65, and the dwelling-house at £20.

The Surveyor of Taxes contended that the shop in Rue-End Street and the dwelling-house above it formed one inhabited house in the sense of the Act; that the said shop with the store or cellar behind was attached to the dwelling-house, and that these premises being entirely occupied by the appellant he was liable to the assessment under rule 3 of Schedule B, 48 Geo. III. cap. 55.

The Surveyor further maintained that the division of a dwelling-house into different tenements, when such tenements remain in the occupation of the owner, has no effect upon the liability to inhabited — house — duty, and that the premises assessed not being divided into and let in different tenements, the exemption contained in section 13, sub-sec. 1, of the Customs and Inland Act 1878 (41 Vict. cap. 15), did not apply, and neither did the exemption in sub-sec. 2, the house not being occupied solely for trade or business purposes.

Argued for him—Although the house was not let out to separate tenants, yet it was structurally divided, and was capable of being Page: 116 ↓

Authorities— Scottish Widows Fund v. Solicitor of Inland Revenue , Jan. 22, 1880, 7 R. 491 ; Russell v. Coutts , Dec. 14, 1881, 9 R. 261 ; Corke v. Brims , July 7, 1883, 10 R. 1128 ; Nisbet v. M'Innes , July 15, 1884, 11 R. 1095 ; Allan v. Thomson , July 15, 1884, 21 S.L.R. 741 .