THE NEW DUTIES

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2606, 30 October 1915, Page 13

THE NEW DUTIES

A RUSH TO ESCAPE THEM. The Stamp Department has been busy of late dealing with business hastened to avoid tho new duties to operate on Monday. The stamp duty on mortgages of ss. for every £100 is entirely new. It is payable only_ on tho execution of a mortgage, and is not a recurring duty— i.e., it does not recur each year. The tax will be paid by the mortgagee. Since the day the Budget was introduced there has been a considerable rush ' from all over the country to have deeds and mortgages and other documents carrying new duties put through. This rush has increased during tho last few days. As in tho case of wine and spirit importers who hastened to get their stocks out of bond when there seemed a probability of additional duty being imposed, so have legal documents paying the new taxes been hustled along to the Stamps Department for completion. In other respects there is a busy time for that Department. Additional hands, it is understood, have had to be put on, and overtime lias been worked to cope with tho stamping of cheque-books for the banks stamping the new extra penny duty stamp. Six million cheque forms have been sent in to he stamped, Business firms, as well as the banks, can send in their cheque-books, if' so dasired, to bo stamped. Each cheque stamped, of course, means an additional penny to the country's revenue. The Department is doinj; everything possible to make tho operation of the new duty as easy as possible, and to explain all matters not understood. In regard to tlm present cheque-books held by private individuals, the affixing of an additional ordinary penny stamp, or two half-penny stamps, will meet the requireireuts until the old books have been "finished.