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1970 (4) TMI 59 - SC - Income TaxWhether Parliament had no power to legislate with respect to taxes on gifts of lands and buildings ? Held that:- The pith and substance of the Gift-tax Act is to place the tax on the gift of property which may include lands and buildings. It is not a tax imposed directly upon the lands and buildings but is a tax upon the value of the total gifts made in a year which is above the exempted limit. There is no tax upon lands or buildings as units of taxation. Indeed, the lands and buildings are valued to find out the total amount of the gift and what is taxed is the gift. The value of the lands and buildings in only the measure of the value of the gift. A gift-tax is thus not a tax on lands and buildings as such (which is a tax resting upon general ownership of lands and buildings) but is a levy upon a particular use, which is transmission of title by gift. The two are not the same thing and the incidence of the tax is not the same. Since entry 49 of the State List contemplates a tax directly levied by reason of the ground ownership of lands and buildings, it cannot include the gift-tax as levied by Parliament. There being no other entry which covers a gift-tax, the residuary powers of Parliament could be exercised to enact a law. The appeals must, therefore, be allowed
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