PART 4

Stamp Duties

102 .— In this Part “Principal Act” means the Stamp Duties Consolidation Act 1999 .

103 .— (1) Section 1 of the Principal Act is amended in subsection (1)—

(a) by inserting the following after the interpretation given to “bill of exchange”:

“ ‘child’, in relation to a claim for relief from duty made under this Act, includes a person, being a transferee or lessee, who, prior to the date of execution of the instrument in respect of which relief from duty is claimed, has resided with, was under the care of, and was maintained at the expense of the transferor or lessor throughout—

(a) a period of 5 years, or

(b) periods which together comprised at least 5 years,

before such person attains the age of 18 years, but only if such claim is not based on the uncorroborated testimony of only one witness;”,

and

(b) by inserting the following after the interpretation given to “instrument”:

“ ‘ lineal descendant ’, in relation to a conveyance or transfer (whether on sale or as a voluntary disposition inter vivos), includes a person who, as transferee, is a child of the transferor;”.

(2) This section applies as respects instruments executed on or after the date of the passing of this Act.

104 .— (1) The Principal Act is amended by inserting the following after section 80:

“80A.— (1) In this section—

‘acquiring company’ means a limited company which is incorporated in the State, in another Member State or in an EEA State;

‘assurance business’ has the meaning assigned to it by section 3 of the Insurance Act 1936 ;

‘assurance company’ means—

(a) an assurance company within the meaning of section 3 of the Insurance Act 1936 , or

(b) a person that holds an authorisation within the meaning of the European Communities (Life Assurance) Framework Regulations 1994 (S.I. No. 360 of 1994);

‘demutualisation’ means an arrangement between an assurance company, being an assurance company which carries on a mutual life business, and its members under which—

(a) the assurance business or part of the business carried on by the assurance company is transferred to an acquiring company, and

(b) shares or the right to shares in the issuing company are issued or, as the case may be, granted to the members;

‘EEA Agreement’ means the Agreement on the European Economic Area signed at Oporto on 2 May 1992, as adjusted by the Protocol signed at Brussels on 17 March 1993;

‘EEA State’ means a state which is a contracting party to the EEA Agreement;

‘employee’, in relation to a company, includes any officer or director of the company and any other person taking part in the management of the affairs of the company;

‘issuing company’, in relation to a demutualisation, means an acquiring company or a parent company in relation to an acquiring company, including a company which becomes a parent company in relation to an acquiring company as part of the demutualisation;

‘member’, in relation to a reference to a member of an assurance company, or to a person who is entitled to be a member of an assurance company, includes a reference to a member of any particular class or description;

‘parent company’, in relation to an acquiring company, means a limited company incorporated in the State, in another Member State or in an EEA State, which owns directly or indirectly 100 per cent of the ordinary share capital of the acquiring company;

‘pensioner’, in relation to a company, means a person who is entitled, whether now or in the future, to a pension, lump sum, gratuity or other like benefit referable to the service of any person as an employee of the company;

‘shares’ includes stock.

(2) Stamp duty shall not be chargeable on any instrument made for the purposes of or in connection with a demutualisation where the conditions set out in subsection (3) are satisfied.

(3) The conditions referred to in subsection (2) are—

(a) shares in the issuing company must be offered to at least 90 per cent of the persons who immediately prior to the demutualisation are members of the assurance company, and

(b) all the shares in the issuing company which will be in issue immediately after the demutualisation, other than shares which are to be or have been issued pursuant to an offer to the public, must be offered to persons who, at the time of the offer, are—

(i) members of the assurance company,

(ii) persons who are entitled to become members of the assurance company, or

(iii) employees, former employees or pensioners of the assurance company or of a company which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the assurance company.

(4) For the purposes of subsection (3)(b)(iii), a company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of another company (in this subsection referred to as the ‘parent’) if it has no members other than the parent and the wholly-owned subsidiaries of the parent, or persons acting on behalf of the parent or its wholly-owned subsidiaries.

(5) This section shall not apply to an instrument unless it has, in accordance with section 20, been stamped with a particular stamp denoting that it is not chargeable with any duty.

(6) This section shall not apply unless the demutualisation is carried out for bona fide commercial reasons and does not form part of a scheme or arrangement of which the main purpose, or one of the main purposes, is avoidance of liability to stamp duty, income tax, corporation tax, capital gains tax or capital acquisitions tax.

(7) (a) Where a claim is made for exemption under this section, the Commissioners may require the delivery to them of a statement in such form as they may direct, made by or on behalf of the person claiming the exemption in support of such claim, and of such further evidence (if any) as they may require.

(b) The powers conferred on the Commissioners by paragraph (a) shall be in addition to and not in substitution for the powers conferred on them by section 20.

(8) Where, in respect of any claim for exemption from duty under this section which has been allowed, it is subsequently found that any statement or other evidence furnished in support of the claim was untrue in any material particular, or that the conditions set out in subsection (3) are not fulfilled in the demutualisation as actually carried out, then the exemption shall cease to be applicable and stamp duty shall be chargeable on the instrument as if subsection (2) had not been enacted together with interest on the duty, by means of penalty, calculated in accordance with section 159D, from the date of the instrument to the date on which the duty is paid.”.

(2) This section shall apply as respects instruments executed on or after the date of the passing of this Act.

105 .— (1) Section 81A of the Principal Act is amended in subsection (14) by substituting “31 December 2008” for “31 December 2005”.

(2) This section applies as respects instruments executed on or after 1 January 2006.

106 .— (1) The Principal Act is amended by inserting the following after section 82:

“82A.— (1) In this section ‘approved body’, ‘designated securities’ and ‘relevant donation’ have, respectively, the meanings assigned to them in section 848A (as amended by the Finance Act 2006) of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 .

(2) Stamp duty shall not be chargeable on any instrument transferring designated securities, which are a relevant donation or part of a relevant donation, to an approved body.

(3) Subsection (2) shall not apply to an instrument unless that instrument has, in accordance with section 20, been stamped with a particular stamp denoting that it is not chargeable with stamp duty.”.

(2) This section applies as respects instruments executed on or after the date of the passing of this Act.

107 .— (1) The Principal Act is amended by inserting the following after section 88A—

“Funds: reorganisation.

88B.— (1) In this section—

‘domestic fund’ means an investment undertaking within the meaning of section 739B of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 other than an investment undertaking referred to in section 739I(1)(a)(ii) of that Act;

‘foreign fund’ means an arrangement which takes effect by virtue of the law of a territory outside the State, being an arrangement made for the purpose, or having the effect, solely or mainly, of providing facilities for the participation by the public or other investors, as beneficiaries, in profits or income arising from the acquisition, holding, management or disposal of securities or any other property;

‘units’, in relation to a domestic fund or, as the case may be, a foreign fund, includes shares and any other instruments granting an entitlement to shares in the investments or income of, or to receive a distribution from, a domestic fund or, as the case may be, a foreign fund.

(2) Stamp duty shall not be chargeable on any instrument made for the purposes of or in connection with any arrangement between a foreign fund and a domestic fund, being an arrangement entered into for the purposes of or in connection with a scheme of reconstruction or amalgamation under which the foreign fund transfers assets to the domestic fund and the domestic fund issues units to the persons who hold units in the foreign fund in respect of and in proportion to (or as nearly as may be in proportion to) their holdings of units in the foreign fund.

Reconstructions or amalgamations of certain common contractual funds.

88C.— Stamp duty shall not be chargeable on any instrument made for the purposes of or in connection with a scheme for the reconstruction or amalgamation of a common contractual fund to which subsection (3) (inserted by the Finance Act 2006) of section 739H of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 applies.”.

(2) This section applies as respects instruments executed on or after the date of the passing of this Act.

108 .— (1) The Principal Act is amended by inserting the following after section 99:

“99A.— Stamp duty shall not be chargeable on any instrument under which any land, easement, way-leave, water right or any right over or in respect of the land or water is acquired by the Courts Service.”.

(2) This section applies as respects instruments executed on or after the date of the passing of this Act.

109 .— (1) The Principal Act is amended by inserting the following after section 101—

“101A.— (1) In this section ‘payment entitlement’ has the same meaning as it has for the purposes of Council Regulation (EC) No. 1782/2003 of 29 September 2003 ²² .

(2) Subject to subsection (3), stamp duty shall not be chargeable under or by reference to any heading in Schedule 1 on an instrument for the sale, transfer or other disposition of a payment entitlement.

(3) Where stamp duty is chargeable on an instrument under or by reference to any heading in Schedule 1 and part of the property concerned consists of a payment entitlement—

(a) the consideration in respect of which stamp duty would otherwise be chargeable shall be apportioned, on such basis as is just and reasonable, as between the part of the property which consists of a payment entitlement and the part which does not, and

(b) the instrument shall be chargeable only in respect of the consideration attributable to such of the property as is not a payment entitlement.

(4) The amount or value of the consideration attributable to a payment entitlement, shall be disregarded for the purposes of the statement provided for in paragraphs 7 to 14A of the heading ‘CONVEYANCE or TRANSFER on sale of any property other than stocks or marketable securities or a policy of insurance or a policy of life insurance’ and any statement referred to in those paragraphs shall be construed accordingly.

(5) Where part of the property referred to in subsection (1) of section 45 consists of a payment entitlement, that subsection shall have effect as if the words ‘in such manner as is just and reasonable’ were substituted for ‘in such manner, as the parties think fit’.

(6) Where part of the property referred to in subsection (3) of section 45 consists of a payment entitlement and both or, as the case may be, all the relevant persons are connected with one another, that subsection shall have effect as if the words ‘, the consideration shall be apportioned in such manner as is just and reasonable, so that a distinct consideration for each separate part or parcel is set forth in the conveyance relating to such separate part or parcel, and such conveyance shall be charged with ad valorem duty in respect of such distinct consideration.’ were substituted for ‘for distinct parts of the consideration, then the conveyance of each separate part or parcel shall be charged with ad valorem duty in respect of the distinct part of the consideration specified in the conveyance.’.

(7) For the purposes of subsection (6), a person is a relevant person if that person is a person by or for whom the property is contracted to be purchased and the question of whether persons are connected with one another shall be construed in accordance with section 10 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 and as if the reference to the Capital Gains Tax Acts in the definition of ‘relative’ in that section was replaced by a reference to the Stamp Duties Consolidation Act 1999 .

(8) Where subsection (5) or (6) applies, and the consideration is apportioned in a manner that is not just and reasonable, the conveyance relating to the separate part or parcel of property shall be chargeable with ad valorem duty as if the value of that separate part or parcel of property were substituted for the distinct consideration set forth in that conveyance.”.

(2) This section applies as respects instruments executed on or after 1 January 2005.

110 .— Part 8 of the Principal Act is amended—

(a) in section 117(1) by substituting “Where any transaction takes place before 7 December 2005,” for “Where any transaction takes place,”, and

(b) in section 119 by substituting the following for subsection (5):

“(5) Notwithstanding subsection (4), the reduced rate shall continue to apply if the transfer, as a result of which the shares in question were not held for a period of 5 years, was—

(a) a transfer forming part of a transaction, taking place before 7 December 2005, which would of itself qualify for the reduced rate pursuant to subsection (1),

(b) a transfer forming part of a transaction, taking place on or after 7 December 2005, which would of itself so qualify had the transaction taken place before 7 December 2005, or

(c) a transfer in the course of a liquidation of the acquiring company.”.

111 .— (1) Section 123B of the Principal Act is amended—

(a) in subsection (1) by substituting the following for the definition of “combined card”:

“ ‘combined card’ means a card, issued by a promoter to a person having an address in the State, which contains 2 functions being the function of a cash card and the function of a debit card;”,

(b) by substituting the following for subsection (2):

“(2) A promoter shall, within one month of the end of each year, commencing with the year 2006, deliver to the Commissioners a statement in writing showing the number of cash cards, combined cards and debit cards issued at any time by the promoter and which are valid on 31 December in that year, distinguishing in the case of combined cards the number of such cards both of whose functions were used during the year and the number of such cards only one of whose functions was used during the year.”,

and

(c) by substituting the following for subsection (4):

“(4) Stamp duty shall be charged on every statement delivered in pursuance of subsection (2)—

(a) at the rate of €10, in the case of each cash card and each debit card,

(b) at the rate of €10, in the case of each combined card only one of whose functions was used during the year, and

(c) at the rate of €20, in the case of each combined card both of whose functions were used during the year,

included in the number of cards shown in the statement.”.

(2) This section shall have effect as respects any statement which falls to be delivered by a promoter after 31 December 2006.

²²OJ No. L270 of 21.10.2003, p.1