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