STAMP DUTIES

373
£2 or upwards gives a receipt not amounting to £2 or separates
or divides the amount paid with intent to evade the duty, he
shall incur a fine of £10.’

It will be observed that no particular form of words is now
necessary to render a writing given for or upon the payment of
money chargeable as a receipt, and that it is not necessary
that the writing should be signed. There are numerous
decisions upon the definition of a receipt. The use of the word
‘settled’ or of any form of writing, even a mere signature in a
book in columns by which payment is acknowledged, is
sufficient, and in the case of The Attorney-General v. The
Carlton Bank, Limited (1899), 2 Q.B. 158, it was held that
the initials by the secretary or cashier of a bank written in a
book containing entries of sums collected or recovered by
the salaried solicitor of the bank as an acknowledgment that
moneys amounting to a total sum of £2 or upwards had been
paid over by him to the bank rendered the duty payable. It
has also been held in two other cases [General Council of the
Bar v. Inland Revenue (1907), 1 K.B. 462], that the placing of
his initials by a King’s Council or of his signature by a barrister
against the fees marked on his brief as an acknowledgement of
the payment of fees, amounting to £2 or upwards, is a receipt
within the definition. The charge extends to every document
signed as a receipt, and it is not material that the sum for
which the receipt is given was included with other sums for
which another receipt was given. Thus, in the case of The
Attorney-General v. Ross (1909), 2 Ir. R. 246, it was held
by the Court of Appeal in Ireland that a receipt given for
rent amounting to £2 was chargeable with the duty, although
the payment was included in a composite account for rent
and goods for which another receipt, duly stamped, had
been given, and the separate receipt for rent was stated
to have been given for book-keeping purposes only. A
receipt for a donation or subscription to a charity (payment of
which could not generally be enforced at law) is in practice
allowed exemption from duty.

A receipt for a payment by cheque is a receipt for a bill
of exchange within the definition, and when a payment
amounting to £2 or upwards is made, it is not material whether
it is a payment in full or on account.

In the case of contra accounts, where a settlement 1s
effected between the parties by payment of a balance and -e
sum paid is less than £2, a receipt stamp is not neces-
but it must be clear that the receipt was not in the form
receint for the debt itself—it must show precisely what