Hong Kong Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

Topic

Gift versus sale

Legal area

Court

29 Aug 2023

HO WAI KWONG , executor of the estate of YU KING, deceased v. HO KAM CHUI

Citation

[2023] HKCFI 2218
Court

Court of First Instance
Case number

HCA1224/2016

On the totality of the evidence (formal transfer documents, contemporaneous memoranda, solicitor records, family meeting records, subsequent conduct and failure to pay), the Transfer was a sale for $8,000,000, the Defendant repudiated by non-payment and the Mother accepted repudiation; the SPA was terminated and the Defendant holds the 50% registered interest on trust for the Mother's estate and must transfer it back and account for rental income less minor deductions.
20 Aug 1999

SHIU WING LTD. AND OTHERS v. THE COMMISSIONER OF ESTATE DUTY

Citation

SHIU WING LTD. AND OTHERS v. THE COMMISSIONER OF ESTATE DUTY
Court

Court of Appeal
Case number

CACV199/1998

By majority the Court held that the pre-ordained composite transactions contained intermediary steps that had no commercial purpose apart from avoidance of estate duty and therefore those steps were to be disregarded under the Ramsay principle; the true end result was an effective inter vivos disposition of Hong Kong-situate property to offshore trustees within three years of death and the transfers were chargeable to estate duty.