Keren Kayemeth le Jisroel Ltd v Commissioners of Inland Revenue
[1932] A.C. 650(Decision by: Lord Thankerton)
Between: Keren Kayemeth le Jisroel Ltd - Appellant
And: Commissioners of Inland Revenue - Respondents
Judges:
Lord Tomlin
Lord Warrington of Clyffe
Lord ThankertonLord MacMillan
Lord Wright
Subject References:
REVENUE
INCOME TAX
Association for settling Jews in Palestine and Elsewhere
CHARITY
Legislative References:
Income Tax Act, 1918 (8 & 9 Geo. 5, c. 40) - s. 37
Judgment date: 10 May 1932
Decision by:
Lord Thankerton
My Lords, I agree with the opinion which has just been delivered by my noble and learned friend on the Woolsack. I would also like to express my concurrence in particular with the judgment of Lawrence L.J. in the Court of Appeal, which seems to me to deal very fully and very adequately with the matter before your Lordships.
There is only one point upon which I would like to add a sentence or two, and that is on the question of the claim that this is a trust for purposes beneficial to the community. The first ground on which it was put, as my noble and learned friend has just said, was that it was for the benefit of Jews all over the world. My Lords, I desire to say on that point that I also do not think that they can be described as a community in the sense in which that word is used in this connection. It seems to me that "community" predicates the existence of some political or economic body settled in a particular territorial area, and that the trust must be for that political or economic unit or a particular class within that particular political or economic unit.
The alternative ground on which it was sought to bring this trust within that class was in the view that it was for the benefit of Jews within the prescribed area. In addition to the comment, which would be fatal in itself, that those Jews may include people who are not actually within the prescribed area at all, again it does seems to me more than doubtful whether that is a community in the sense which I have suggested, because the area here is an enormous area with no political or economic homogeneity between the various parts of the area. It is quite indefinite, and I doubt very much whether, on that head, there is a community in which even the Jews who are settled within the prescribed region could be described as a particular class.