Bond, covenant, or instrument of any kind The obligee, covenantee, or other person whatsoever taking the security.
Conveyance on sale The vendee or transferee.
Lease or tack . . . . . The lessee.
Mortgage, bond, debenture, covenant, and The mortgagee or obligee ; in the case of a warrant of attorney to confess and enter transfer or recouveyance, the transferee, up judgment assignee, or disponee, or the person re deeming the security.
Settlement ..... . . The settlor.
But, except where there is other express provision in relation to any par ticular instrument—(a) an unstamped or insufficiently stamped instrument which has been first executed at any place out of the United Kingdom, inay be stamped at any time within thirty days after it has been first received in the United Kingdom on payment of the unpaid duty only ; and (b) the Commissioners may, if they think fit, at any time within three months after the first execution of any instrument, mitigate or remit any penalty payable on stamping. A charter party may be stamped within seven days from execution on payment of a penalty of 4s. 6d., and after seven days but within a month .E10. The penalty on stamping a receipt within fourteen days after being given is ,V5, and after fourteen days but within a month oe10. The payment of penalty is denoted on the instrument by a particular stamp. The following instruments cannot legally be stamped after execution : Bills of exchange, bills of lading, marine polices executed in the United Kingdom, proxies and voting papers.
Some special appraiser, by whom an appraisement or valuation chargeable with stamp duty is made, must, within fourteen days after the making thereof, write it out in words and figures showing the full amount thereof upon duly stamped material, and if he neglects or omits so to do, or to disclose the amount of the appraisement or valuation, he incurs a fine of „e5O. Any one who receives from an appraiser or pays for the making of any such appraisement or valuation will, unless it be duly • written out and stamped, incur a fine of X20.
Bank notes, bills of exchange, and promissory notes.—The expression " banker " in this connection means any person carrying on the business of banking in the United Kingdom, and the expression " bank note " includes— (a) any bill of exchange or promissory note issued by any banker other than the Bank of England, for the payment of money not exceeding X200 to the bearer on demand ; and (b) any bill of exchange or promissory note so issued which entitles or is intended to entitle the bea.rer or holder thereof, without indorsement or without any further or other indorsement tha.n may be thereon at the time of the issuing thereof, to the payment of money not exceeding R100 on demand, whether the same be so expressed or not, and in whatever form, and by whomsoever the bill or note is drawn or made. A banker who is not duly licensed or otherwise authorised to issue unstamped bank notes incurs a fine of £50 if he issues or permits to be issued any bank note not duly stamped. If any person receives or takes in payment or as a security any bank note issued unstamped contrary to law, knowing the same to be so issued, he incurs a fine of £20. Meaning of " bill of exchange."— For the purposes of the Stamp Acts the expression " bill of exchange " includes draft, order, cheque, and letter of credit, and any document or writing (except a bank note) entitling or purporting to entitle any person, whether named therein or not, to payment by any other person of, or to draw upon any other person for, any sum of money ; and the expression " bill of exchange payable on demand " includes—(a) an order for the payment of any sum of money by a bill of exchange or promissory note, or for the delivery of any bill of exchange or promissory note in satisfaction of any sum of money, or for the payment of any sum of money out of any particular fund which may or may not be available, or upon any condition or contingency which may or may not be performed or happen ; and (b) an order for the payment of any sum of money weekly, monthly, or at any other stated periods, and also an order for the payment by any person at any time after the date thereof of any sum of money, and sent or delivered by the person making the same to the person by whom the payment is to be made, and not to the person to whom the payment is to be made, or to any person on his behalf. Meaning of
"promissory note."—For the purposes of the Acts the expression "promissory note " includes any document or writing (except a bank note) containing a promise to pay any sum of money. A note promising the payment of any sum of money out of any particular fund which may or may not be available, or upon any condition or contingency which may or may not be performed or happen, is deemed a promissory note for that sum of money. The fixed duty of one penny on a bill of exchange payable on demand or at sight or on presentation may be denoted by an adhesive stamp, which, where the bill is drawn in the United Kingdom, is to be cancelled by the person to whom the bill is signed before he delivers it out of his hands, custody, or power. The ad valorem duties upon bills of exchange and promissory notes drawn or made out of the United Kingdom must be denoted by adhesive stamps. Stampingforeign bills and notes.—Every person into whose hands a foreign bill of exchange comes in the United Kingdom before it is stamped must, before he presents for pay ment, or indorses, transfers, or in any manner negotiates, or pays the bill or note, affix thereto, and cancel, proper adhesive stamps of sufficient amount. But (a) if at the time when any such bill or note comes into the hands of a bond fide hglder there is affixed thereto an adhesive stamp effectually cancelled, the stamp will, so far as relates to the holder, be deemed to be duly cancelled, although it may not appear to have been affixed or can celled by the proper person ; (c) if at the like time there is affixed to the bill or note an adhesive stamp not duly cancelled, the holder can cancel it, and upon his so doing the bill or note will be deemed duly stamped, and as valid and available as if the stamp had been cancelled by the person by whom it was affixed. A bill of exchange or promissory note which purports to be foreign is deemed, for stamping purposes, to be a foreign one, although it may in fact have been drawn or made within the United Kingdom. Stamping after execution.—Where a bill of exchange or promissory note has been written on material bearing an impressed stamp of sufficient amount but of improper denomination, it may be stamped with the proper stamp on payment of the duty, and a penalty of ,,e2 if the bill or note be not then payable according to its tenor, or of .E10 if it is so pay able. Otherwise no bill of exchange or promissory note can be stamped with an impressed stamp after execution. Penalty.—Every person who issues, indorses, transfers, negotiates, presents for payment, or pays any bill of exchange or promissory note liable to duty and not being duly stamped incurs a fine of .110, and the person who receives or takes from any other person any such bill or note either in payment or as a security, or by purchase or otherwise, is not entitled to recover thereon or to make the same available for any purpose whatever. Provided that if any bill of exchange payable on demand or at sight or on presentation is presented for payment unstamped,.the person to whom it is presented may affix thereto an adhesive stamp of one penny and cancel the same, as if he had been the drawer of the bill, and may thereupon pay the sum in the bill mentioned and charge the duty in account against the person by whom the bill was drawn, or deduct the duty from the said sum ; and the bill is, so far as respects the duty, to be deemed valid and available : but this proviso does not relieve any person from any fine or penalty incurred by him in relation to such bill. One bill only of a get need be stamped.—When a bill of exchange is drawn in a set according to the custom of merchants, and one of the set is duly stamped, the other or others of the set, unless issued or in some manner negotiated apart from the stamped bill, are exempt from duty ; and upon proof of the loss or destruction of a duly stamped bill forming one of a set, any other bill of the set which has not been issued or in any manner negotiated apart from the lost or destroyed bill, may, although unstamped, be admitted in evidence to prove the contents of the lost or destroyed bill.