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South Africa Abolishes Stamp Duty,
by Robert Lee, Tax-News.com, London
Friday, April 03, 2009
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has announced the abolition of the Stamp Duty
Act with effect from midnight on March 31, 2009.
According to SARS, the abolition forms part of the on-going efforts to reduce
the administrative burden on taxpayers and to simplify the tax system.
The scrapping of the Act (77 of 1968) follows the whittling down of the scope
of stamp duties over the past few years until only property leases of over five
years required stamp duties to be paid. This has now been done away with from
April 1, 2009.
The scrapping of the Act is, however, not retrospective and taxpayers remain
liable for stamp duties due up to March 31, 2009 and any outstanding stamp duties
must still be paid.
Adhesive revenue stamps will only be demonetarized from November 1, 2009 to
allow time for other government departments which utilize these to introduce
alternative measures. After that date they may not be used for any purpose.
Holders of existing stocks of revenue stamps have until October 31, 2010 to
claim a refund. Similarly, revenue franking machines will be scrapped on November
1, 2009 and any value remaining on these machines can be refunded until October
31, 2010.
Procedures for the claiming of refunds were published in a government Gazette
on March 27, 2009.
Stamp duty is an indirect tax charged on an instrument – which in this
context means a formal legal document and includes any written document or piece
of writing. The Stamp Duties Act 77 of 1968 levied this duty on instruments
such as leases of immovable property and unlisted marketable securities. However,
it was not the name by which an instrument is known, but its legal nature that
determined whether it was an instrument that attracted duties. And the type
of instrument determined the rate at which the duty was charged.
An instrument was subject to stamp duty if it was executed in South Africa
or if the instrument was executed outside the country but related to any property
or matter there. It was the duty of the taxpayer to determine whether stamp
duty must be paid.
From January 1, 2005, stamp duty was imposed at 0.5% of the quantifiable amount
of a lease.
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