Stamp Duties Amendment Act 1966

This commentary item was published in Public Information Bulletin Volume 23, June 1965.

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Stamp Duties Amendment Act 1966

Reference Fee

Previously any person objecting to a stamp duty assessment had to pay a 5s reference fee If his objection was successful we refunded the fee.

Section 2 does away with the fee.

Objection Fee

Section 3. Abolishes the £2 objection fee. Any person can now object to a stamp duty assessment and ask for a case to be taken to the Supreme Court without having to pay the fee.

Valuation Of Land

Section 4. Brings valuations of land for stamp duty into line with the practice for other duties revenues. Now the Commissioner may, by agreement with the party paying the duty, compromise the value of the land for duty purposes. In addition, when a special valuation has been made an appeal by the parties to the document may be settled by the Valuer-General.

The right to take an appeal to the Land Valuation Court has been retained.

Property Transfers From Trustee To Beneficiary

Section 5. Makes an important change to the stamp duty payable on property transfers from a trustee to a beneficiary.

When the property transferred to the beneficiary does not exceed the values of his interest in the estate or trust no conveyance duty is payable even though the property is not that to which he is entitled.

Conveyance duty will still be payable on any part of the property which exceeds the value of his interest in the estate or trust.

Stamp Duty on Cheques

Section 6. Makes it clear that commuted duty on cheques and Bills of Exchange is a debt due to the Crown.