STAMP DUTIES

375

Accordingly, when an instrument chargeable with duty
is produced to the secretary of a company for any purpose it
becomes his duty to ascertain that it is duly stamped before
he can regard it as available for the purpose, and if any
doubt arises it will rest upon the person producing it to
satisfy him that it is duly stamped. In ordinary circum-
stances it is not, however, necessary to do more than to see
that the instrument when produced appears to be sufficiently
stamped, and in the case of a document bearing a proper
adhesive stamp the presumption is that the stamp was
affixed at the proper time unless the contrary is shown. In
any case of doubt the person producing the instrument
should be directed to apply to the commissioners of Inland
Revenue for the duty to be determined as provided by s. 12
of the Act. The importance of the sub-section to secretaries
of companies becomes apparent on a reference to s. 17 of the
Act, which is as follows: —

If any person whose office it is to enrol, register, or enter
in or upon any rolls, books, or records, any instrument
chargeable with duty enrols, registers, or enters any
such instrument not being duly stamped, he shall
incur a fine of £10.

The responsibility of a secretary or registering officer of a
company in this matter is similar to that of the Registrar
of Companies, and it was established in 1888 in the
case of R. v. The Registrar of Joint Stock Companies [21
Q.B.D. 131], relating to the refusal of the Registrar to
file a contract on the ground that it was insufficiently
stamped, that the proper mode of questioning the legality
of his refusal was to present the contract for the adjudication
of the Commissioners under s. 12 of the Act, and an applica-
tion for a mandamus against the Registrar was accordingly
refused.
In the case of a transfer of shares or stock or marketable
securities where a sum less than the market value is shown
as the consideration for the transfer, or in the opinion of the
secretary or registering officer there is any doubt as to the
sufficiency of the stamp thereon, it is desirable that he should
require the opinion of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue
to be obtained, seeing that if the transfer is made (1) on a
sale, (2) in satisfaction in the whole or in part of a pecuniary
legacy which is chargeable as on a sale for the amount of
the legacy discharged thereby, (3) in liquidation of a debt,
or (4) in exchange for other securities, ad valorem duty is
in each case payable on the value or agreed value of the