Stamp Duties - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition stamp-duties

Definition :

Stamp duties, a branch of the revenue. They are a tax imposed on all parchment and paper whereon certain legal proceedings and certain private ins-truments re written; and on licences for various purposes.

The consolidating Stamp Act, 1870, superseded the very numerous older enactments [in great part repealed by the (English) Inland Revenue Repeal Act, 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. 90)] in regard to the duty on the various classes of instruments, but by s. 17 of the Stamp Act, 1870 (re-enacted by s. 14 of the Stamp Act, 1891), reversing the former law, see Buckworth v. Simpson, (1835) 1 CM&R 384, the stamp to be affixed to an unstamped document to render it admissible in evidence was not the stamp in accordance with the law at the time of affixing it, but the stamp in accordance with the law in force at the time when the document was first executed.

Very important alterations in the law of stamps were effected by the Customs and Inland Revenue Act, 1888. Prior to that Act it was no offence not to stamp any instruments except receipts, the provision that unstamped instruments should be inadmissible in evidence being considered sufficient for the protection of the revenue. With respect to very large classes of instruments, being either (1) Bonds, (2) Conveyances of Transfers, (3) Leases or Agreements for Leases, (4) Mortgages whether legal or equitable, or (5) Settlements, the Act of 1888 created the new offence of not stamping, imposing the special penalty of ten pounds, which falls upon the obligee, vendee or transferee, lessee or intended lessee, mortgagee, or settlor, as the case may be, for not stamping the instrument within thirty days after execution in ordinary cases. The same Act barred any right to sue for moneys assured by an unstamped assignment of a life policy, made void every condition of sale framed with a view of precluding objection or requisition upon the ground of absence or insufficiency of stamp upon any instrument executed after 16th May, 1888, and abridged, from twelve months to three, the period after execution of an instrument within which the Commissioners of Inland Revenue might remit the penalties payable on stamping, after execution, unstamped or insufficiently stamped instruments generally.

Consolidating Act of 1891.--Many alterations in the law of stamps having been effected since the passing of the Act of 1870, the enactments relating to stamps were again consolidated, with a few immaterial amendments, by the Stamp Act, 1891 (54 & 55 Vict. c. 91), the 14th s. of which regulates the terms on which instruments not duly stamped may be received in evidence, while the 15th imposes penalties on the stamping of conveyances leases, etc., after execution. In the same year the Stamp Duties Management Act, 1891, repealing and re-enacting the (English) Stamp Duties Management Act, 1870, regulated the sale of stamps, the allowance for spoiled stamps, and made the forgery of stamps and dies a felony, as to which see now the Forgery Act, 1913.

Since 1891 the duties on various documents [see especially CONTRACT NOTE, and, generally, Chitty's Statutes, tit. 'Stamps,' and Statutes of Practical Utility (Annual), tit. 'Stamps'] have been altered by various Finance Acts, of which the most important are the (English) Finance (1909-10) Act, 1910 (10 Edw. 7, c. 8), and (English) Finance, 1920 (10 & 11 Geo. 5, c. 18). By the Finance (1909-10) Act, 1910, the duties on conveyances and transfer on sale of any property except on certain stocks were doubled bys. 73(ibid.), unless the consideration does not exceed 500l., and the following certificate must in that case be inserted on every conveyance on which the reduction is applicable:'

It is hereby certified that the transaction hereby effected does not form part of a larger transaction or series of transactions in respect of which the amount or value or the aggregate amount or value of the consideration (or if voluntary) of the land and property conveyed or transferred exceeds the sum of 500l.

Consult Alpe on Stamp Duties.

As to exemption from certain stamp duties, see Build-ing Societies Act, 1874, s. 41; Friendly Societies Act, 1896, s. 33; Revenue Act, 1911, s. 15; Finance Act, 1911, s. 17. See also National Health Insurance Act, 1924, and NATONAL INSURANCE, and Law of Property Acts, 1922 and 1925; Administration of Estates Act, 1925.