" Transfers to or from trustees otherwise than for effectuating the appointment of a new trustee or the retirement of a trustee should be required to be adjudicated.
" Section 17 of the Stamp Act, 1591, im poses on all registering officers the duty of satisfying themselves that all instruments of transfer are adequately stamped before they admit them to registration. The Board are well aware that it is not always easy for a registering officer to determine the particular circumstances under which any such instrument which may come before him has been made, but their experience goes to show that it is generally possible to ascertain by inquiry the actual facts of the case, and they desire to urge upon all regis tering officers, who may have to deal with instruments purporting to be properly stamped with the fixed duty of 10s., the necessity of satisfying themselves that the provisions of the law have been complied with in each case, before they admit the instrument to registration.
" In any case where a registering officer has reasonable doubt whether an instrument is duly stamped, and the parties decline to give the information necessary to enable him to satisfy himself on this point. and in all cases of transfers by way of gift inter vivos, he should refuse to register the trans fer, unless the instrument bears the Board's Adjudication Stamp. In order to obtain that stamp the parties interested must present the instrument at the office of the Solicitor, London, Edinburgh, or Dublin, as the case may be, where all needful informa tion can bc- obtained." On 17 June, 1910, a further circular was issued by the Inland Revenue, as follows : " With reference to the circular to secre taries of Public Companies dated 29 April last, the attention of the Board of Inland Revenue has been called to the fact that difficulty is sometimes experienced in obtain ing, in the cases (b) and (c) mentioned in the circular, a certificate of the facts of the transaction signed by the transferor and transferee. The Board, therefore, desire to intimate to secretaries and other registering officers that while they consider that, as a general rule, the best form of evidence of the correctness of the fixed duty of 10s. borne by a transfer in such cases will be found to be a certificate signed by both the transferor and transferee, they have no objection to the receipt of other evidence, provided it shows, clearly and satisfactorily, the nature of the transaction. Where, for
instance, the transferee is a well-known bank and the required certificate is given by an accredited representative of the bank, the Board would accept such a certificate without requiring the instrument to be adjudicated. A similar case is one in which a satisfactory certificate is given by a member of a stock exchange acting for one or other of the parties to the transfer.
" In any case, however, in which the regis tration officer is not satisfied that the transfer is duly stamped with the fixed duty of 10s., he should not hesitate to refer the parties to the Board." On 5 September, 1910. another circular was issued by the authorities at Somerset House as follows : " With reference to the circulars to secre taries of public companies, dated the 29th April, and the 17th June last, I am directed by the Board of Inland Revenue to inform you that it has been represented to them that, with very few exceptions, transfers for nominal consideration to or from banks or their nominees clearly fall within classes excepted from the provisions of Section 74 of the Finance (1909 10) Act, 1910, imposing ad valorem duty, and that it is not necessary or desirable that representatives of banks, in furnishing certificates in regard to the stamp duty, should specify the facts of each particular transaction.
" 1 n all the circumstances the Board are of opinion that, in the case of transfers of this nature executed by a well-known hank or its official nominees. the interests of the 1Zevenue would, as a general rule, be ade quatel• protected it registering officers were furnished with a certificate by an accredited representative of the bank to the effect that the transfer is excepted from Section 74 of the Finance (1909-10) Act, 1910, and is duly stamped.
" It is to be understood that this modifi cation of the Board's previous circulars applies only to the case of banks, and that in other cases the requirements of those circulars should continue to be observed." (See BLANK TRANSFER, CERTIFICATE, COMPANIES, LEEMAN'S ACT, SHARES, TRANS MISSION OF SHARES.)