Clause 57.—(PAYMENT OF DUTY.) (Hansard, 23 May 1963)

§ Mr. du Cann
I beg to move, in page 55, line 22, to leave out from "duty" to the end of line 26 and to insert: chargeable by virtue of paragraph (b) above on the transfer of stock shall be chargeable only where duty would be chargeable under or by reference to the heading 'Conveyance or Transfer on sale' in Schedule 1 to the Stamp Act 1891 if the transfer were effected by an instrument not being a bearer instrument". I hope to be able to explain this somewhat technical matter simply and rationally. The whole object of making this Amendment is to give effect to what was our original intention. The original drafting of the Clause was faulty. The proviso in the Bill as it stands deals with bearers by usage only. It should deal with all classes of bearers. It catches cases in respect of which duty should not be paid. That, as I am sure the Committee will understand, is unintentional.
I shall give one specific example. The Committee will know that if Mr. A sells or gives a share to Mr. B, full transfer duty is payable. I am speaking of registered securities. That is reasonable, and that is how the system works. If, on the other hand, Mr. B or bank B is holding the stock as nominee for Mr. A on the transfer from one name to the other it is entirely a nominal matter and nominal duty is paid. There can be other transfers of that sort in respect of which nominal duty is paid, for example, from the executors of a deceased person to a beneficiary under his will, which are perfectly proper and 762 reasonable transactions where it would be quite proper for transfer duty not to be paid.
It would be wrong for the whole load of bearer issue to follow on a transaction of that sort which is not a transfer of beneficial ownership in the ordinary sense of the term. It is the intention of this proviso to exclude these bearer stocks, both bearers by usage as originally drafted and all these, from such a situation.

§ Mr. Mitchison
I wish to thank the Economic Secretary and to say that we see no objection to this.

§ Mr. du Cann
I beg to move, in page 57, line 19, after "cent.", to insert "per annum".
As a matter of courtesy, I should explain to the Committee that this is a drafting Amendment. The words we are proposing to put in were accidentally left out.