- (1.) The company, and this is important, is a mutual insurance company, which was incorporated in New South Wales in 1849 and is now regulated by certain later Australian statutes. The company has a branch office in London and carries on part of its business here.
(2.) I should next refer to some of the income tax provisions relating to insurance companies. Rule 15 of the rules applicable to Schedule D, Cases I and II, in the Income-tax Act, 1918, provides as follows by sub-rule (1) : Where an insurance company carries on life insurance business in conjunction with assurance business of any other class, the life assurance business of the company shall for the purposes of this Act be treated as a separate business from any other class of business carried on by the company.
(3.) Rule 3 of the rules applicable to Case III of Schedule D has an important bearing on this case. [His Lordship read it and continued :] These provisions are those contained in the Income-tax Act, 1917. There are seven years assessments concerned in the case, from 1947-48 to 1951-52. The Act of 1918 applies to the five earlier years and the Act of 1952 applies to the last two years. There is no material difference between the Act of 1918 and the Act of 1952 for the present purpose, so I can confine my references to the provisions in the Act of 1918.;