Stamp duty is a tax that is levied on documents. Historically, this included the majority of legal documents such as cheques, receipts, military commissions, marriage licences and land transactions. A physical stamp (a revenue stamp) had to be attached to or impressed upon the document to denote that stamp duty had been paid before the document was legally effective. More modern versions of the tax no longer require an actual stamp.
The duty was originally introduced in the Netherlands in 1624 and spread to other countries subsequently, France 1654, Denmark 1657 and Prussia 1682.
Read more about Stamp Duty: Australia, Denmark, Hong Kong, Ireland, Singapore, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States, European Union, Further Reading
Famous quotes containing the words stamp and/or duty:
“The man whose action habitually bears the stamp of his mind is a genius, but the greatest genius is not always equal to himself, or he would cease to be human.”
—Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)
“Look carefully through all the claims pressing upon you in your complicated life, and decide once and for all what it is that is the one really important and overmastering duty in it, and should be the one dominating aim. Then remember that if you succeed in that, the others, so multifarious, are really no more than the fringe of the garment, and that you need not spend so much anxiety over them, provided that the one most important is faithfully attended to.”
—Anna C. Brackett (1836–1911)