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was repealed in 1895 by s. 9 of the Finance Act of that year in 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.