HC Deb 09 April 1962 vol 657 c976

I am also proposing a minor amendment in the Stamp Duty law, namely, the abolition of settlement duty, except in the case of unit trusts. The law governing this duty is complicated and difficult to apply. The yield, apart from the unit trusts, is only about £30,000 a year. It is reasonable to retain the duty for the unit trusts, because it corresponds broadly to the Stamp Duty on a company's capital including that of an investment trust company. But I shall also remove a minor blemish affecting unit trusts. Under the existing law, a unit trust which contracts in size and then expands again has, in effect, to pay duty twice on the same amount of capital. This will no longer be the case. These changes will take effect from 1st August.