A history of tithes

by Henry William Clarke

VII. If any party in any action or matter under this Act shall be dissatisfied with the determination or direction of the judge of the County Court in point of law or equity, or upon the admission or rejection of any evidence, the party aggrieved by the judgment, direction, decision, or order of the judge may appeal from the same to the High Court, in such manner and subject to such conditions as may be for the time being provided by the rules of the Supreme Court regulating the procedure on appeals from inferior courts to the High Court.

Remission of tithe rentcharge when exceeding two-thirds annual value of land.

VIII.—(1) Where a sum is claimed on account of tithe rentcharge issuing out of any lands, and the County Court is satisfied that, if the sum claimed is paid, the total amount paid on account of the tithe rentcharge for the period of twelve months next preceding the day on which the sum claimed became payable, will exceed two-thirds of the annual value of the lands as ascertained and entered in the assessment for the purpose of Schedule B. to the Income Tax Act, 1853,[294] or as certified as hereinafter mentioned, the Court shall order the remission of so much, whether the whole or part of the sum claimed, as is equal to the excess, and the amount so ordered to be remitted shall not be recoverable; and if the Court is satisfied that neither such remission, nor the liability thereto, has been taken into account in estimating the rateable value of the tithe rentcharge, the Court may remit such amount of any then current rate assessed on the owner of the tithe rentcharge as appears to the Court to be proportionate to the amount of the remission of tithe rentcharge.

(2) Where the lands out of which any tithe rentcharge issues are assessed for the purposes of the said Schedule B. together with other lands, the surveyor of taxes for the parish in which the lands are so assessed, on the application of the owner or occupier of the lands, shall divide the annual value in such assessment between the lands out of which any tithe rentcharge issues and the other lands, and give notice of the annual value of the lands as determined on such division to the applicant and to the owner of the tithe rentcharge; and if either of them is dissatisfied with the annual value so determined, he may appeal to the general commissioners of income tax for the division in which the lands are assessed, and those commissioners, after due notice to and hearing the parties or their agents if any of them wishes to be so heard, shall finally determine the proper division of the annual value; and the annual value of lands so determined as aforesaid shall, for the purposes of this section, be the annual value of the lands as ascertained for the purpose of the said Schedule B.

(3) For the purposes of this section the owner of tithe rentcharge shall have the same right of appeal as the owner of lands, whether under the enactments relating to the said assessment or under this section.

(4) If in any case the annual value of any lands is not ascertained and entered in the assessment for the purpose of the said Schedule B., the general commissioners of income tax for the division in which the lands are situate shall, on the application of the owner or occupier of the lands, ascertain the annual value of the lands for the purpose of the said Schedule B., and inform the applicant of the same.

(5) The commissioners of taxes shall on demand and payment of one shilling give a certificate of the amount of the annual value of any lands under this section.

(6) Where it appears from any award that a special apportionment has been made in pursuance of section fifty-eight of the Tithe Act, 1836,[295] whereby tithe rentcharge has been charged specially upon certain closes of land in different proportions, and to the exclusion of certain of them, the Court shall not grant a remission under this section unless satisfied that the applicant would have been entitled to such remission if no such special apportionment had been made.

(7) Where two or more tithe rentcharges issue out of the same lands, and a remission of tithe rentcharge has been made by a County Court under this section, the amount paid by the owner of the lands on account of tithe rentcharge shall be divided between the owners of such tithe rentcharges in proportion to the amount thereof as fixed by the apportionment or any altered apportionment.