CO129-472 - Others - 1921 — Page 675

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enacted the ad valorem duty on conveyances was at a uniform rate irrespective of the amount of the consideration and no loss of duty was involved in cases falling under the section. In 1910 however two rates were introduced, one for transactions under £500 and another for those over 2500 and provision was made (in Section 73 of the Finance (1909-10) Act, 1910) to prevent loss of duty in cases falling within Section 58 (1). No similar provision appears in the Hong Kong Ordinance. A concrete instance will shew the variation between the English law and the law of Hong Kong in this respect. A sells to B in the United Kingdom two properties for a total consideration of£1,000. For convenience of the parties

the transaction is carried out by two conveyances in each of which one of the properties is conveyed for an expressed

consideration of £500. Stamp Duty on each conveyance is at the rate per cent (namely 21) applicable to a single transaction of £1,000. The total duty paid is £10, and

there is no loss of duty by reason of the fact that two

instruments have been issued. But in a similar case

in Hong Kong, if A contracted to sell B two properties for a total consideration of $30,000 and in the same circumstances

executed two conveyances each for an expressed consideration

of $15,000, the duty paid on each of these conveyances would

apparently be at the rate of 50 cents per hundred dollars,

whereas on a single conveyance for $30,000 the duty payable

would be #1 for every $100. Possibly this point would be of

interest to the Hong Kong Government in the event of any

modification of the existing Ordinance being contemplated.

III.

New duties on Exchange Contracts

and Telegraphic Transfers,

The Board offer no comment on these new charges

except to observe that they have no counterpart in the

Stamp law of this country, the general principle of which

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