## Facts

- John Gartside established a discretionary trust under his will, providing for the distribution of income and capital among a class of beneficiaries including his son.
- Upon the death of one of the beneficiaries, the Inland Revenue Commissioners sought to include the value of the deceased's interest in the trust fund as part of the estate for calculating estate duty under the Finance Act 1940.
- The trustees argued that the deceased's interest could not be valued, as it depended solely on the trustees' exercise of discretion.
- The Inland Revenue Commissioners contended that the value of the trust fund should be apportioned among the beneficiaries and the deceased’s share included in their estate.
- The matter reached the House of Lords, focusing on whether an individual beneficiary's interest in a discretionary trust could be quantified for estate duty purposes.

## Issues

1. Whether the value of a beneficiary's interest in a discretionary trust can be quantified in isolation for the purpose of calculating estate duty.
2. Whether the beneficiary's interest constituted property that should be included in the deceased’s estate under the Finance Act 1940.
3. Whether the collective rights of all beneficiaries or individual interests should form the basis for valuation in the context of discretionary trusts.

## Decision

- The House of Lords unanimously held that the value of a beneficiary's interest in a discretionary trust could not be quantified in isolation.
- The court reasoned that beneficiaries' rights in a discretionary trust are collective and contingent, reliant on the trustees' discretion; no single beneficiary has a fixed entitlement to any portion of the trust property.
- Attempting to assign a value to any individual beneficiary’s interest was deemed speculative and impractical given the uncertainty introduced by the trustees' discretion.
- The court concluded that, for tax and estate duty purposes, only the trust fund as a whole and the collective rights of all possible beneficiaries could be considered, not isolated interests.

## Legal Principles

- In a discretionary trust, beneficiaries have no fixed entitlement; their interests are contingent on the trustees' discretion and cannot individually be valued.
- The collective rights of all potential beneficiaries of a discretionary trust should be considered for tax and estate duty purposes rather than attempting individual valuation.
- Attempts to apportion or value individual interests in discretionary trusts for taxation purposes are speculative and unreliable due to unavoidable uncertainty.

## Conclusion

The House of Lords confirmed that the interest of an individual beneficiary in a discretionary trust cannot be valued in isolation for estate duty; instead, only the collective rights over the trust fund as a whole may be taken into account, fundamentally shaping the treatment of discretionary trusts in taxation and trust law.


Gartside v IRC [1968] AC 553