366 
SECRETARIAL PRACTICE 
Inland and The distinction between an inland bill or note and a 
Foreign Bills. foreign bill or note is explained in s. 36 of the Act of 1897, 
which is as follows: — 
A bill of exchange or promissory note which purports 
to be drawn or made out of the United Kingdom is 
for the purpose of determining the mode in which 
the stamp duty thereon is to be denoted to be deemed 
to have been so drawn or made, although it may in 
fact have been drawn or made within the United 
Kingdom. 
There is not any similar provision with regard to a bill 
or note which is in fact drawn or made out of the United 
Kingdom, but purports to be drawn or made within the 
United Kingdom. The stamp duty on such a bill or note 
should be denoted by the adhesive stamp applicable to a 
foreign bill or note. 
Sir M. D. Chalmers, in his work on the Bills of Exchange 
Act, summarises the effect of the Stamp Act as follows: — 
‘Bills payable on demand, whether inland or foreign, may be 
stamped with either adhesive or impressed stamps, though of 
course a foreign bill would not be likely to be on an impressed 
stamp; foreign notes of all kinds and foreign bills payable 
otherwise than on demand must be stamped with adhesive 
stamps; inland notes of all kinds and inland bills payable 
otherwise than on demand must be drawn on impressed 
stamps.’ 
Penalties for S. 38 (1) provides that ‘every person who issues, indorses, 
[ssuing transfers, negotiates, presents for payment, or pays, any bill 
Dnstamped of exchange or promissory note liable to duty and not being 
’ duly stamped shall incur a fine of £10, and the person who 
takes or receives from any other person any such bill or note 
either in payment or as security, or by purchase or otherwise, 
shall not be entitled to recover thereon, or to make the same 
available for any purpose whatever.” The only qualification 
of this provision is that contained in s. 38 (2) already quoted 
relating to bills chargeable with the fixed duty of 24. 
Exemptions There are eleven exemptions from the charge of duty 
trom Duty on ypon bills of exchange and promissory notes. The most 
Lin A important of them relate to the business of banking and to 
the business of public departments. These latter include 
an exemption in favour of a ‘bill drawn in the United Kingdom 
for the sole purpose of remitting money to be placed to any 
account of public revenue.” This exemption was the subject 
of a decision [Committee of London Clearing Bankers Vv. 
Inland Revenue (1806), 1 O.B. 222] in which it was