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18 1950

FINANCE ACT, 1950

PART VI.

Stamp Duties.

Exception from application of sections 24 and 25 of Finance Act, 1949.

16. —(1) Subject to subsection (2) of this section, sections 24 and 25 of the Finance Act, 1949 (No. 13 of 1949), shall not apply and shall be deemed never to have applied in the case of a lease by a local authority under the provisions of the Housing of the Working Classes Acts, 1890 to 1931, or the Labourers Acts, 1883 to 1941, or any Acts amending or extending those Acts, or of a lease by a society registered under the Industrial and Provident Societies Acts, 1893 to 1936, and made, in accordance with a scheme for the provision of houses for its members, to a member or to such member and the spouse of the member, and any amount of duty paid before the passing of this Act in respect of any such lease in excess of the amount chargeable under paragraph (3) of the heading “Lease or Tack” in the First Schedule to the Stamp Act, 1891, as amended by subsequent enactments other than the Finance Act, 1949 , may be repaid.

(2) Subsection (1) of this section shall apply if, but only if—

(a) as respects section 24 of the Finance Act, 1949 —the lease contains a statement by the lessee certifying that the person who becomes entitled to the entire beneficial interest in the lessee's interest under the lease (or, where more than one person becomes entitled to a beneficial interest therein, each of them) is a person falling within a specified one of the classes set out in paragraphs (a) to (f) of subsection (4) of section 24 of the Finance Act, 1949 , and

(b) as respects section 25 of the Finance Act, 1949 —either the lease contains a statement such as aforesaid or the Revenue Commissioners are satisfied that it could properly have contained such a statement as aforesaid.

Stamp duties on certain instruments in cases of reduction of rent.

17. —(1) Whenever and so often as the rent for the time being payable in respect of any lease first executed on or after the 3rd day of May, 1950, is reduced on or after that date in consideration of any money, stock or security moving either to the lessor or to any other person, the instrument (in the subsequent subsections of this section referred to as the said instrument) on or after that date acknowledging the receipt of the consideration for the reduction (or, where the consideration is payable by instalments, of the instalment after payment of which the reduction becomes effective) or recording directly or indirectly that the rent has been reduced shall, notwithstanding anything in any other Act, be charged with the same stamp duty, and be subject to the provisions of the Stamp Act, 1891 (as amended by subsequent enactments), as if, instead of being such instrument, it were—

(a) a lease of lands, tenements or hereditaments which had been made in consideration of the rent reduced as aforesaid and the consideration for the reduction, and for an indefinite term, and under which the person beneficially entitled at the date of the taking effect of the reduction of the rent to the lessee's interest in the property out of which the rent so reduced issues was the lessee, or

(b) in the case specified in subsection (2) of this section, a lease such as is referred to in the foregoing paragraph and containing such a statement as is referred to in subsection (4) of section 24 of the Finance Act, 1949 (No. 13 of 1949).

(2) The case referred to in paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of this section is that in which the said instrument contains a statement, by the person entitled at the date of the taking effect of the reduction of the rent to the beneficial interest in the lessee's interest in the property out of which the rent so reduced issues, that he is within one of the classes specified in paragraphs (a) to (f) of subsection (4) of section 24 of the Finance Act, 1949 , or, where two or more persons were so entitled, contains a statement by each of them such as aforesaid.

(3) (a) The said instrument, if executed before the passing of this Act, shall be deemed for the purposes of this Act to have been first executed on the passing of this Act, and shall be charged with the stamp duty specified in subsection (1) of this section accordingly.

(b) the provisions of paragraph (a) of this subsection shall have effect in relation to the said instrument, if executed before the passing of this Act, notwithstanding that, before such passing, it may have been stamped with a particular stamp denoting either that it is not chargeable with any duty or is duly stamped.

(c) Notwithstanding any of the foregoing provisions of this subsection, the total stamp duty chargeable on the said instrument, if executed before the passing of this Act, shall not exceed the amount with which it would have been charged if it had in fact been executed after the passing of this Act.

(d) Where, at the expiration of thirty days after the passing of this Act, the said instrument, if executed before such passing, is not stamped with the stamp duty charged thereon by virtue of this Act, a sum equal to twice the unpaid stamp duty shall thereupon be a debt due to the Minister for Finance for the benefit of the Central Fund by the person beneficially entitled at the date of the taking effect of the reduction of the rent to the lessee's interest in the property out of which the rent so reduced issues or, where two or more persons were so entitled, by those persons jointly and severally, and the said sum shall be recoverable at the suit of the Attorney General in any court of competent jurisdiction.

(e) The Revenue Commissioners may, if they think fit, mitigate or remit any sum recoverable under the provisions of paragraph (d) of this subsection.

Exemption from stamp duty of certain receipts.

18. —Stamp duty shall not be chargeable on any receipt given for any payment of a pension under the Old Age Pensions Acts, 1908 to 1948.

Agreements as to stamp duty on industrial assurance policies.

19. —(1) Where, in the opinion of the Revenue Commissioners, any body of persons carrying on industrial assurance business so carries on that business as to render it impracticable or inexpedient to require that the stamp duties chargeable on policies issued by the body in the course of that business should be charged and paid thereon, the Revenue Commissioners may enter into an agreement with that body for the delivery to the Revenue Commissioners of periodical accounts giving such particulars as may be required of the policies so issued by the body.

(2) The agreement shall be in such form and shall contain such terms and conditions as the Revenue Commissioners think proper.

(3) Where an agreement has been entered into under this section between the Revenue Commissioners and any body of persons, any policy which, during the period for which the agreement is in force, is issued by that body in the course of its industrial assurance business and which contains a statement that the appropriate stamp duty has been or will be paid to the Revenue Commissioners in accordance with the provisions of this section, shall not be chargeable with any stamp duty, but in lieu thereof and by way of composition there shall be charged, in respect of the policies issued during the period to which any such account as is mentioned in subsection (1) of this section relates, a stamp duty of an amount equal to the aggregate of the amounts of stamp duty which, but for the provisions of this section, would have been chargeable upon those policies, and the stamp duty chargeable under this subsection by way of such composition as aforesaid shall be paid by the body to the Revenue Commissioners on the delivery of the account.

(4) Where a body makes default in delivering any account required by any such agreement or in paying the duty payable on the delivery of any such account, the body shall be liable to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds for every day during which the default continues and shall also be liable to pay, in addition to the duty, interest thereon, which shall be recoverable in the same manner as if it were part thereof, at the rate of five per cent. per annum from the date when the default begins.

(5) In this section, the expression “industrial assurance business” has the same meaning as in the Insurance Act, 1936 (No. 45 of 1936).