HC Deb 01 May 1902 vol 107 cc449-50
MR. CONDON (Tipperary, E.)

I beg to ask Mr. Attorney General for Ireland whether his attention has been directed to the practice at present existing in Ireland of charging stamp duty at the rate of 10s. per cent. only on the purchase money on the sale of a farm, subject to the rent, and an additional 10s. per cent. on the redemption value of the annuity payable to the Land Commission on the sale of farms which have been previously purchased under the provisions of the Irish Land Purchase Acts: and whether he Government will introduce some measure to prevent this additional impost on the sale of farms purchased under the Land Purchase Acts.

SIR M. HICKS BEACH

The practice is as stated, and is in accordance with the general law, applicable to the whole of the United Kingdom, as contained in Section 57 of the Stamp Act, 1891. The reason of the difference between the two sets of circumstances is that in the first case the purchase money represents the full value of the consideration for the transfer, in the second it represents only a part of the consideration, and is exclusive of so much of it as is represented by the incumbrance on the property, the liability for which is transferred to the purchaser.