Income Tax Act 2007 section 473

Deceased person as settlor where variation of will etc.

Section 473 deals with what happens for income tax purposes when a disposition of property following someone's death is varied (for example, by a deed of variation of their will or intestacy), and ensures that the deceased person is treated as the settlor of any new or redirected settlement that results from that variation.

• Where a post-death variation redirects property from one settlement into another, the deceased is treated as the settlor of that other settlement for income tax purposes.
• The original settlement can be one that arose on the deceased's death (by will, intestacy or otherwise) or one that already existed immediately before death, regardless of whether the deceased was previously a settlor of it.
• If the deceased was already the settlor of property in an existing settlement immediately before the variation, and the variation moves that property into a different settlement, the deceased is again treated as the settlor of the new settlement.
• Any settlement treated as made by the deceased under these rules is deemed to have been made immediately before the deceased's death, except where the settlement itself arose on the death.