AMENDED STAMP DUTIES.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 October 1915, Page 6

AMENDED STAMP DUTIES.

IN FORCE ON MONDAY. The amended stamp duties provided for in the Finance Act, 1915, come into operation on Monday next, November 1. These mainly affect dealings with property, introducing taxation in several new directions. An ad valorem duty of 10s for every £SO, or part of £SO, worth sold, exchanged or partitioned will be applied on the sale of land, but a provision is made that when the conveyance or transfer is presented for stamping within one month the agreement will be exempt from duty. Mortgages and encumbrances, transfers of same, releases and discharges will be chargeable with duty (payable by the mortgagee, except in the latter case). Generally Bpeaking, the exemptions from duty follow the lines of the old Stamp Duties Act, except where special consequential alterations are needed. Deeds of assignment for the benefit of creditors (not compositions under the Bankruptcy Act) are now liable to £3 duty, instead of £2 10s as heretofore. One per cent, duty will be payable upon all stakes won at any horse races in New Zealand, and accounts have to be furnished to the Commissioner within seven days of each race meeting. A totalisator dividend duty will be levied at the rate of 6d for every £1 or fraction thereof of the dividend of any horse race, less 10 per cent. Important alterations have been made in the Death Duties Act of 1909 and 1911. A summary of the revised duties discloses an increase of from one-fifth to double the existing fees. Receipts, the public should remember, will, on and after the Ist prox., require a 2d stamp instead of Id. Promissory notes, including cheques, payable on demand, will also bear a 2d duty, and the same with bills of exchange. A fee of £8 5a will be payable on certificates of incorporation under the Companies Act, instead of £5 as previously. The duty on share transfers has been raised by from one-fifth to one-fourth as specified. The increase in duty on all the instruments affected by the amended scale amounts to an average of 25 per cent. on former rates. The same applies to mortgages and releases, and it will be necessary that there should accompany or be incorporated in such documents a statement as to the amount of principle and interest secured or paid off so as to enable the Commissioner to correctly assess the amount of duty.