Anderson (executor of Anderson dec'd) v Commissioners of Inland Revenue
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 22 December 1997 |
| Date | 22 December 1997 |
| Court | Special Commissioners (UK) |
special commissioners decision
Mr TG Coutts QC sitting in Edinburgh.
The executor appeared in person.
Mr PR Twiddy of the Capital Taxes Office for the Crown.
The parties were agreed that the issue for the Tribunal was whether the Respondents had discharged the onus upon them of establishing that the late Robert Smith Anderson had acquired a domicile of choice in England at the time of his death in 1982.
The facts which I find established on the written material supplied and the evidence given by Mr Anderson are as follows.
Robert Anderson was born on 30 September 1909 in Scotland, he lived in Scotland for the next 64 years. In 1974 he, through his Scottish solicitors, sold his property in Scotland and acquired a property in Padstow, Cornwall.
He had decided to retire and live in a house which was adjacent to a golf course. His entire business life was spent in Scotland, he had been a member of Whitecraigs Golf Club in Glasgow since the age of seven until he acquired honorary membership after forty years in which he paid subscriptions. He retained that membership. His son, the Appellant, lived in Scotland. He had a sister who lived in Fife and his business acquaintances were mainly in the east of Scotland. He had signed and left with his Glasgow solicitors a will in Scots form appointing his wife as Executrix and leaving his whole estate to her dated 5 November 1951.
During his sojourn in Cornwall he did not instruct other solicitors and at the time of his death it was not known whether he had executed a will or not. The new will was sent to the late Mrs Anderson. Solicitors in Newquay were then instructed by the Appellant and his sister to deal with their deceased father's estate. A few months after his removal to England Mr Anderson senior had a serious heart attack and thereafter was restricted in his activities although he did return from time to time to Scotland to visit his relatives and friends. His daughter, Rosemary, who provided a letter to the Respondent in July 1997, went to live with her parents. She was more cared for than a carer and according to the evidence of the Appellant, which I accept, was not a little confused and reclusive. She appears to have settled in her parents' house where she lived more or less independently.
The content of Rosemary Anderson's letter was produced to me but I disregard it entirely as unreliable. That is apparent from the reading of its content and her manifest misunderstanding of the situation at the time of...
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