Lord Diplock

(delivering the judgment of the Board): This appeal is against an additional assessment of income tax for the year of assessment, 1967, made upon the appellant ("the taxpayer") on March 11, 1972, in respect of the profit of $176,774 made by him upon the sale on October 25, 1966, of an area of 6,666 acres of land ("the land") in the District of Kinabatangan, Sabah, which he had purchased in April 1964. The statute in force at the period to which the additional assessment related was the Income Tax Ordinance, 1956, (Sabah) and the section under which the assessment was made was section 9(1)(a) which reads: —

"9(1) Income tax shall, subject to the provisions of this Ordinance, be payable at the rate or rates specified hereinafter for each year of assessment upon the income of any person accruing in or derived from the Colony or received in the Colony from outside the Colony in respect of —

(a) gains or profits from any trade, business, profession or vocation, for whatever period of time such trade, business, profession or vocation may have been carried on or exercised."

The taxpayer appealed to the Special Commissioners of Income Tax against the additional assessment upon