Clause 84.—(STAMP DUTY: CONVEYANCES AND TRANSFERS.) (Hansard, 22 June 1965)

§ Mr. MacDermot
I beg to move, Amendment No. 613, in page 115, line 29, at the end, to insert: Provided that, in a case falling under the said paragraph (b), duty shall not be repayable if it appears to the Commissioners that the circumstances are such that a conveyance or transfer on the sale in question would have been chargeable with duty under section 74 of the Finance (1909–10) Act 1910 by virtue of subsection (5) of that section (conveyances and transfers on sale chargeable as voluntary dispositions if for inadequate consideration). I think that it might be convenient if, with this Amendment, we discuss Amendment No. 614, in page 115, line 42, leave out from first "of" to "and" in line 43 and insert "the said section 74".

§ The Temporary Chairman (Mr. Thomas Steele)
If the Committee wishes, so be it.

§ Mr. MacDermot
This Clause nullifies two devices for the avoidance of Stamp Duty on conveyances and transfers, and these two Amendments are designed to improve subsection (2) so as to ensure more effectively the closing of avoidance devices of the kind which the Clause is designed to prevent.
1703 Briefly, subsection (1) deals with a property which is transferred in contemplation of a sale, and if the sale takes place for a consideration less than the value assessed, the duty on the difference is repayable under subsection (2, b). These provisions work all right for sales on a commercial basis, but not where the sale price is so low as to import an element of gift, and that is what the Amendments deal with.
Under Amendment No. 613, where duty is payable on the value of property transferred in contemplation of a sale, no return can be claimed on the ground that the actual sale price is lower than the value assessed if the price has been fixed at an artificially low figure in order to confer a benefit on the transferee. The second Amendment, No. 614, is a consequential drafting one.

§ Mr. MacDermot
I beg to move Amendment No. 615, in page 116, to leave out lines 19 to 22, and to insert: in a case where the whole of such property has been so re-conveyed or re-transferred, so far as it exceeds the stamp duty which would have been payable apart from this subsection and, in any other case, so far as it exceeds the stamp duty which would have been payable if the instrument had operated to convey or transfer only such property as is not so re-conveyed or re-transferred". This is a similar Amendment to improve subsection (5) which is designed to prevent the value of a gift on which ad valorem Stamp Duty is being charged from being artificially diminished by a reservation of the power of revocation. Under the Amendment, it is only where the whole of the property is retransferred on the excise of the power of revocation that a return can be claimed of the duty paid in excess of the amount which would have been payable apart from the subsection. That is the modest amount of 10s.
Where only part of the property is retransferred the amount repayable, where a claim is duly made, is the excess of the duty paid over the duty which would have been payable if the original 1704 transfer bad related only to the property which is not retransferred.