157
No. 20.
HONGKONG.
MINUTE BY THE COLLECTOR OF STAMP DUTY ON A PROPOSED INCREASE OF THE DUTIES BY 50 PER CENT.
Presented to the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government,
on the 31st March, 1886.
HONOURABLE ACTING COLONIAL SECRETARY.
With reference to your note of February 26th, enquiring the effect of an increase of Stamp Duty of 50 per cent., I beg to report that the total collected by this Office in 1885 (the lowest collection for five years past) was,
Deduct Court Fees, &c.,
....$145,581.81 14,259.74
$131,322.07
An increase of fifty per cent. on the above would of course amount to about $65,000 a year, but there are some duties which really could not be increased. A Receipt Stamp, for instance, could hardly be more than three cents.
On the other hand there are duties which would bear an increase of more than fifty per cent. Our duties on Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes, for instance, might be doubled without rendering them excessive. They will still be below those charged at Singapore, which they should never exceed. I enclose a Table shewing roughly the increases I should propose, to give a general increase of 50 per cent. to the Stamp Revenue. The result may be taken as about $71,000 a year.
I should propose a special treatment of the duty on Transfers of Shares. I had meant to submit a suggestion for this on the first opportunity. The duty on uncompleted Transfers at Singapore is just three times what it is here, and is so arranged as either to prevent the defrauding of the Revenue which goes on by means of what are called Blank Transfers, or to compensate for it. The result would be to treble the amount collected.
If the Community would prefer increased taxation to take the shape of Stamp Duties rather than that of a Spirit Farm (the only other feasible proposal so far) it would be very convenient, as all the machinery is in existence, and there would be no buildings, salaries, allowances, or new appointments required. The very careful redistribution of the duties effected last year has proved satisfactory in nearly every way, and it puts the Colony in the best possible position for either raising or lowering them, which can be carried out, and the law on the subject brought up to date, by means of little more than a few clerical alterations.
I may perhaps add a few words as to the evasion of Stamp Duties by Chinese. Rather exaggerated ideas are current about this. The only Stamp Duties Chinese can evade are those on documents passing entirely amongst themselves and which they can succeed in keeping out of the Courts. These, naturally, are mainly Agreements, Promissory Notes, Receipts, and Native Drafts. But in all business which is not purely native the Chinese must pay Stamp Duty, they cannot help it; and Chinese business is conducted more and more on the western model every year. I am bound to say moreover that since the Promissory Note duties were re-arranged on a more equitable scale they have been largely paid on purely Chinese Notes, the lenders preferring a cheap security to the risk of not being able to recover.
A. LISTER, Collector of Stamp Revenue,
STAMP OFFICE,
29th March, 1886.