MOF Accepts Suggestions On Stamp Duty Legislation

1. The Ministry of Finance (MOF) will incorporate a suggested improvement to the Stamp Duties (Amendment) Bill 2005 received in the public consultation exercise held from 8 July to 5 August 2005. The Bill incorporates changes in the scope of stamp duty relief announced in the Budget 2005 Statement and consequent changes brought about by the introduction of the Business Trusts Act and recent amendments to the Companies Act.

2. The consultation exercise was held to obtain public feedback on areas of the draft legislation that might require greater clarity or could be modified to facilitate compliance by companies and taxpayers. It is part of a series of public consultation exercises on the different legislative changes planned for the year.

3. Five comments were received from three respondents. Two related to the drafting of the legislation. MOF accepted the comment that legislative changes to the scope of stamp duty relief under Section 15 of the Stamp Duties Act to provide for business trusts should be clearer. The other suggestion on defining `value of the chargeable property' in the new Section 32C to mean "market value" was not accepted so as to allow either book value or market value to be used, depending on the nature of the property. The remaining three comments pertained to policies outside the scope of this consultation exercise. MOF will take these inputs into account when reviewing the policies.

4. MOF thanks all respondents in this consultation exercise. MOF's responses to the major comments received are summarised on the MOF's website.

MINISTRY OF FINANCE