Stamp duty

“ As designing persons might attempt to evade the stamp-duty, the legislature has provided that no receipt shall be valid, unless it be written on stamped paper, according to the value or amount of the payment to be made. ”

“ The result, as may be remembered, was not the total abolition, but a reduction of the stamp duty, from about threepence-halfpenny (net) to one penny; an excellent measure in itself, yet but feebly tending to that recuperation for which I looked; since the retention of any duty left a serious obstacle to the multiplication of journals, a fact abundantly shown e converso by subsequent events. ”

“ It is to be observed that the signature of the testator after this attestation has been signed by the witnesses, is not a compliance with the act; he must sign first.
2742. STAMP-DUTIES.—In the case of persons dying intestate, when their effects are administered to by their family, the stamp-duty is half as much more as it would have been under a will. Freehold and copyhold estates are now subject to a special impost on passing, by the Stamp Act of 1857. ”

“ For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or printed, any such grant, appointment, or admission, of or to any such public beneficial office or employment, or any exemplification of the same, within all other parts of the British dominions in America, a stamp duty of six pounds. ”

“ Section one hundred also provided that if any person made, signed, or issued, or caused to be made, signed, or issued, or accepted or paid or caused to be accepted or paid, with design to evade the payment of any such stamp duty, any bill of exchange, draft, or order, or promissory note for the payment of money and liable to any such duty, he should, for every such bill, draft, order, or note forfeit the sum of two hundred dollars. ”

“ If we consider nothing but the articles of taxation, duties, and excises, and the laws that might be made with respect to these, the cases will be almost infinite. If we consider that it is in contemplation that a stamp duty shall take place throughout the continent ”

“ Stamps, while they do duty for coin, are used almost exclusively for small transactions, and generally among people well known to each other. Other precautions are nevertheless very necessary; and besides the initial letters on each stamp—different in every one of the two hundred and forty in the sheet—which are regarded as so many checks on the forger, this pest to society would have to engrave his own die, and cast his own blocks, and find a drilling-machine, perhaps the most difficult undertaking of all. ”

“ He must obtain probate or letters of administration to the deceased within six months of the death, or, if such grant be disputed, within two months of the determination of such suit. The penalty for not doing so is fixed by the Stamp Act 1815, § 37, at £100, and an additional stamp duty at the rate of 10%. ”

“ One cause of difficulty in the case arises from the use of stamps as one of the means of segregating and identifying the property intended to be exported. It is the form in which many taxes and duties are imposed and liquidated; stamps being seldom used, except for the purpose of levying a duty or tax. But we must regard things rather than names. A stamp may be used, and, in the case before us, we think it is used, for quite a different purpose from that of imposing a tax or duty: indeed, it is used for the very contrary purpose,-that of securing exemption from a tax or duty. ”

“ A. Yes; the office cannot demand postage for a letter that it does not carry, or farther than it does carry it. Q. Are not ferrymen in America obliged, by act of parliament, to carry over the posts without pay? A. Yes. Q. Is not this a tax on the ferrymen? A. They do not consider it as such, as they have an advantage from persons travelling with the post. Q. If the Stamp Act should be repealed, and the crown should make a requisition to the colonies for a sum of money, would they grant it? ”

“ You have no right, when the benefit is entirely your own, to cause any extra expense to the receiver of the letter—not even the cost of three cents to pay the postage back again. It is enough to tax their time by requiring them to write to you and send off the reply. Also, in corresponding with a relative, or very intimate friend, to whom even a small expense is of more importance than to yourself, you may enclose a stamp for the answer. Do so always in writing to poor people. Be careful not to allow yourself to get entirely out of post-office stamps. ”

“ An extract from my Journal, a few days later, shows how matters were getting on:—
“May 21st.—Several more cases of stamps wholly unobliterated, or very nearly so, have come within my knowledge; and all sorts of tricks are being played by the public, who are exercising their [400] ingenuity in devising contrivances for removing the obliterative stamp, by chemical agents and other means. ”

“ A letter from his private secretary, accepting this [348] offer, is the last communication I ever received on the subject.
The course actually taken, viz., that of abolishing the limitation on weight and halving the postage, with no arrangement for economy in operation and no set-off, save what is implied in the abolition of the impressed stamp (in itself an important advantage, I acknowledge—one, indeed, for which I had often striven) , largely increases a loss already great, and, what is still worse, greatly strengthens an example already mischievous. ”

“ We think this ample authority for holding that a gratuitous extension of time did not require a stamp, as both the writings relied on in that case have more of the elements of an agreement than the one before us. In the matter of the stamp, we think the court committed no error. ”

“ Had it been possible under the old postal system to prepay letter-postage as well as newspaper-postage, what more likely than that a man so far-seeing as was Mr Knight would also have suggested the application of his stamp to all mail matter? Letter postage stamps and prepayment had, of necessity, to await the advent of 1840 and uniformity of rate. [154]
(4) “Finally, and in its results most important of all, the adhesive stamp was made experimentally by Mr James Chalmers in his printing office at Dundee, in 1834.” ”

“ Connected, however, with the various stamps now in use in this country is the necessity of teaching to our youth their use and application to banks, custom-houses, railroads, post-offices, pawnbrokers, and, in fact, as stamp tax to every trade, business, and department of government.
In several of our commercial colleges an actual stamp department is invented, and mock-banks, custom-houses, steamboat-offices, post-offices, &c., are fitted up for the purpose of familiarizing youth with their use in the various mercantile and governmental departments of the country. ”

“ That it is an essential part of the case, that the die should have been directed or authorised to be used by the commissioners of the stamps, is evident from a reference to the 52 of the King, section 7, which states, that if any person after the passing of that act, shall forge or counterfeit, or cause to be forged or counterfeited, any mark, stamp, die, or plate, which in pursuance of any act of parliament shall have been provided, made, or used, by or under the direction of the commissioners appointed to manage the duties on stamped paper, and so on. ”

“ The regulations respecting special delivery have been so modified that it is no longer necessary for a person despatching a letter which he desires to have delivered immediately, to provide himself with the “special delivery” stamp issued by the department. He may now place upon his letter ordinary postage stamps to the value of ten cents in addition to the stamps required for the prepayment of postage and write across the corner of the envelope the words “special delivery”. This will ensure the special delivery of the letter as provided for in the regulations. ”

“ So the considerate self-seeker ... gave it under his own hand that he would not serve as stamp officer.”—Idem., vol. v., ch. 16, pp. 310-12.
[28] “Everywhere, ... of themselves, or at the instance of the people, amidst shouts and the ringing of bells and the firing of cannon, or ... with rage changing into courtesy on the ... submission of the stamp-master, ... the officers resigned. There remained not one person duly commissioned to distribute stamps.”—Idem., vol. v., ch. 19, p. 351.
[29] “‘I am resolved to have the stamps distributed,’ wrote Colden.... ”

“ Then it would not be possible for a man to hand you a sealed package weighing over seven ounces, and bearing only three two-cent stamps and a ten-cent stamp for registration—you wouldn’t give him his registry receipt under such circumstances?"
"Certainly not, sir," replied the postal clerk. "The package, being sealed, would have to go as first-class mail; and if it weighed a fraction more than seven ounces it would require sixteen cents postage in addition to the registry fee." ”

“ What an absurdity it is for the Government to put its stamp on one thing in order to make it redeemable in another thing imprinted with the same stamp, but which nobody wants except for the purpose of getting a third thing that could have been got just as well without the intervention of the second. ”

“ Our youth were reminded of the wise saws and sayings of "Poor Richard" and it taught them that if they learned to save the cents, the dollars were more likely to take care of themselves. But now think of the miserable, confused looking thing, with its wretched printing, that the Post Office has given us for the present three cent stamp. It is neither historical, national, beautiful, nor anything but a paltry evidence of the fact, that some engraver has got paid or will get paid for a job that ought never to have been done. Can our authorities not let well enough alone? ”

“ Every boy and girl—and, we might add, man and woman—should collect stamps. Our reasons for making this statement are many.
First, stamp-collecting is a highly fascinating pursuit, which helps to while away countless pleasant hours. On this score alone it is worth following.
Secondly, it encourages methodical habits. We examine our stamps carefully, we discriminate between the good and the bad specimens, we keep a watch for minor varieties, we marshal our treasures in correct order, and so on. ”

“ If any person uses or attempts to use in prepayment of postage on any letter or other mailable matter posted in this Province, any postage stamp which has been before used for a like purpose, such person shall be subject to a penalty of not less than Ten and not exceeding Forty dollars for every such offense, and the letter or other mailable matter on which such stamp has been so improperly used may be detained, or in the discretion of the Postmaster General forwarded to its destination charged with double postage. ”

“ Stamps can only be impressed at the inland revenue offices in certain of the larger towns. For duties not exceeding 2s. 6d. the adhesive inland revenue or postage stamps may (in most cases) be used indiscriminately. This arrangement was first introduced in 1881, when it was applied to the penny stamp, and it has since been extended to other denominations. The commissioners of inland revenue are authorized to make allowance under certain conditions for stamps which have been inadvertently spoiled or rendered useless for their intended purposes. ”

“ There is very material economy of labor to the Department in dealing with letters pre-paid by stamp as compared with letters on which the postage is collected in money, as well as a manifest gain to the public, in the increased facilities which pre-payment by stamp enables the Post Office to afford for posting and delivering letters so pre-paid. ”

“ It cannot be satisfactorily accounted for as a passing fancy or fashion. It has too long stood the test of years to be so easily explained away. Fancies and fashions come and go, but stamp collecting flourishes from decade to decade. Princes and peers, merchants and members of Parliament, solicitors and barristers, schoolboys and octogenarians, all follow this postal Pied Piper of Hamelin,
"Grave old plodders, gay young friskers, Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins,"
all bent upon the pursuit of this pleasure-yielding hobby. ”

“ Always, when sending a letter of inquiry, enclose a stamp for the answer. If you trouble your correspondent to take his time to write you information, valuable only to yourself, you have no right to tax him also for the price of postage. ”

“ A two-cent stamp is the signature of the nation, the tiny stupendous Magna Charta of the rights of the people.
As an elevator makes forty stories in a sky-scraper as good as the first one, the two-cent stamp represents the right of one town in this country, so far as the United States is concerned, to be as convenient and as well located as another. ”

“ As a matter of record and without any attempt at lists of varieties, which would prove futile, we deem it interesting and important to give such information as is at hand concerning the precancellation of stamps for use on large quantities of identical mail matter, and of the more recent substitute for the precancelled stamp which is known as the "permit". ”

“ Both judicial and non-judicial stamps are sold on the system usual elsewhere. The Stamp Act is in force in the Agency. Statistics of the receipts will be found in the Appendix, and it will be seen that they are very small. Its revenue from this source has often been held to be an index of the prosperity of a district, since where trade is large and business brisk non-judicial stamps are largely required, while where the people have money in their pockets they are usually fond of spending it on litigation and the sale of judicial stamps accordingly increases. ”