374 SECRETARIAL PRACTICE
—e.g. ‘Settled in contra.’ If a receipt for the debt is given
it must be stamped.

There are several exemptions from the duty on receipts;
of these the most important are the receipts ‘given for money
deposited in any bank or with any banker, to be accounted for
and expressed to be received of the person to whom the same
is to be accounted for,” receipts by bankers in the ordinary
course of business upon a bill of exchange or promissory note
duly stamped, receipts given upon duly stamped documents
for the consideration expressed therein to be payable, receipts
‘given for or on account of any salary, pay or wages, or for
or on account of any other like payment made to or for
the account or benefit of any person, being the holder of an
office or an employee, in respect of his office or employment,
or for or on account of money paid in respect of any pension,
superannuation allowance, compassionate allowance or other
like allowance’ [Finance Act, 1924], and the receipts given
for taxes or duties or in connection with Government business.
There was formerly an exemption in favour of a receipt written
upon a bill of exchange or promissory note, but this exemption
was repealed in 1895 by s. 9 of the Finance Act of that year in
consequence of a practice which had become established of
including on one sheet of paper a cheque followed by a formal
receipt in discharge of an account paid by the cheque for which
a separate receipt would otherwise have been required. This
practice was stated to be convenient for matters of account,
but was a distinct loss to the revenue. Upon the repeal of the
exemption it was provided that the name of the payee written
upon a draft or order, if payable to order, shall not constitute
1 receipt chargeable with stamp duty.

Duties and The greatest care is required by secretaries of companies
Liabilities of jn dealing with instruments chargeable with stamp duty.
Secretaries. g 14 of the Act of 1891 prescribes the terms upon which
instruments not duly stamped may be received in evidence,

and provides that such an instrument shall not be received

in evidence unless it can be legally stamped after execution,

and then only upon payment of the unpaid duty and certain

penalties. The section proceeds in sub-s. (4) as follows: —

Save as aforesaid, an instrument executed in any part

of the United Kingdom or relating wheresoever

executed to any property situate or to any matter or

thing done or to be done in any part of the United

Kingdom shall not, except in criminal proceedings, be

given in evidence or be available for any purpose

whatever unless it is duly stamped in accordance with

the law in force at the time when it was first executed.