22 NOVEMBER 1845, Page 11

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

REMODELLING OF THE STAMP-LAWS: MATTER FOR NEXT BUDGET.

BY the Acts for giving the public Short Deeds, the Legislature has expressed its intention to facilitate the sale of property. To give full effect to this intention, an obstruction to the free transfer of property, interposed for financial purposes must be removed. If all useless verbiage were expunged from deeds,* the difficulties arising from the stamp would still remain. There is an important reason for revising the Stamp-laws, with which only lawyers are familiar, though clients feel it. The law as to deed-stamps is in so conflicting, difficult, and embarrassed a state, that in many eases it is almost impossible to know what stamp to put on a deed; and it is frightful to think how many titles are at this moment un- safe on that account. But the great and palpable grievance of the Stamp-laws, so far as deeds are concerned, is the addition they make to the expense of alienating property. "What will the stamp cost?" is generally the first question asked; and no one can have paid a lawyer's bill without seeing that the question was by no means an unnecessary one. Among the heaviest incumbrances on conveyancing transactions, is the stamp, increasing in price as the deed lengthens, and the heavy ad valorem charge. They pre- vent thousands of transactions which would otherwise be com- pleted. Hundreds of small purchases, small mortgages, and small settlements, are stopped every year by the stamp. The op- pression and inequality of the scale by which stamp-duties aug- ment and diminish—the burden it lays upon the poorer and its comparative exemption of the richer man—have been often ex- posed ; but at present we advert only to the fact that the market for stamps is above the price that the consumer mill pay; and that, although the consumption is necessarily great because many deeds must be executed, yet the middle and poorer classes, the principal consumers of other things, do not buy them„ simply be- cause they do not buy land. The law is in the state that induces smuggling and evasion by many. If it be a crime to defraud the revenue by not using stamps, which of our readers is not guilty ? On the other hand, a higher stamp than is necessary is sometimes paid from fear that the deed will not when examined pass muster. These reasons are of themselves enough to show that a revision of the Stamp-laws is absolutely necessary. This has indeed long been admitted : more than one Chancellor of the Exchequer has surveyed the Stamp Acts with a view to amend them ; but the subject is so extensive, and yet so intricate and minute in its de- tails, that each in turn, allowing distaste and indolence to over- come him, has convinced himself that the task was beyond his strength, and handed over the system to his successor, with all its good and all its bad, as he found it. We should still almost despair of being able to effect the proper reform, but for partial indications that the system is breaking up. Lord Devon, in his Report on Ireland, recommends a reduction of the Stamp-duty on small leases. By an act passed in 1844, which looks almost like a feeler, the stamp on agreements was reduced from 1L to 2s. 6d. And the movement which has been called Conveyancing Reform favours and indeed forces on a consideration of the whole subject. These circumstances encourage us to invite attention to a plan by which the Stamp-laws might be easily simplified, and placed on such a footing as to be made at once far less restrictive on the alienation of property and much more productive to the revenue.

The plan is—lst, To repeal all existing stamp-duties on deeds, chiefly contained in the well-known 55 Geo. III. c. 184, and im- pose in their stead a small uniform stamp (say of 10s.) on all deeds whatever ; to repeal altogether the ad valorem duty, and the stamps on the followers as they are called. 2nd, To assimilate the Stamp-laws on real and on personal property, by imposing a tax similar to the Probate and Legacy duty on the devise or descent of real property. These propositions, we admit, may be considered bold ; but, without entering into details at present, (though not unprepared to do so,) we would observe in support of them- 1. It would be a part of the plan for reducing and equalizing the stamps on deeds, that all deeds should be stamped before exe- cution' and no after-stanaping permitted. All unstamped deeds should be declared invalid and worthless. We should thus have a.plain and easily-comprehended law, which would require a very simple machinery to carry it out, and could not be evaded. Ex- perience in analogous cases entitles us to assume, that by re- ducing the stamp and rendering evasion hopeless the increased dealings with property would eventually augment the revenue. Deeds affect the common business of life and man's every-day dealings ; and no one who sends off a letter, or rides in an omni- bus, or steams on a railroad, will be disposed to doubt that the frequency of such operations is increased by reducing their cost. The sense of responsibility, however, makes Chancellors of the Exchequer sceptical on these points. It must moreover be ad- mitted that any great immediate gain to the revenue is hardly to be expected from the change : it would take sometime and in making up a budget, certainty is one great ingredient. sometime; by no Means rely on the almost certain increase of deeds ; because in lieu of the present ad valorem duties or deeds we would place " By "deeds" is meant, afl written dealings with real or personal property • ma, in contradistinction to those which are merely signed—as an agree- Mitt, ors bill of exchange. somewhat equivalent, but differently modified duties, ou tb,e de- vise and succession of land.

2. A man may die possessed of real estate worth 100,0001. a year, and his heir or devisee pays not one farthing to the-motile : the

personal property of the merchant, trader, or shopkeeper, pays a

heavy contribution on his death, in the shape of Probate and Legacy or Administration duties. This grievance is annually

stated in Parliament; but it is not surprising that the agricultu- ral majorities in both Houses are unable to see the force of argu- ments in favour of placing an additional burden on theen with- out any equivalent. But by combining the assimilation of the duties on real and personal inheritance with the reduction and equalization of the stamps on deeds, the country gentleman may be enabled to see, that by submitting to an additional tax on successions he will be made a richer man. He will be able to make more of his property. He can lease, mortgage, or sell, the whole or a part. What went to Government in the shape of stamp-duty either comes into his own pocket, or, being relieved from its payment, he can put his property to many uses fromwhich the pressure of the Stamp-laws at present pre- cludes him. The person who pays the duty is Posterity ; for whom we are not generally inclined to care much. The proposed change shifts the burden from the existing to the future hold- ers of property ; and these future holders receive gratuitously wherewithal to pay. To the landed interest the only differ- ence would be, that instead of a tax being paid on every transaction relative to property, perhaps a hundred times during the life of the owner, it would be paid only once, on his death. Among private persons it is only the holders of real property who are likely to require much persuasion to ac- quiesce in the change. The merchant or trader, large or small, who could now turn his attention to investments in land—the lawyer, who complains bitterly of the Stamp-laws for interfering with his practice and fair professional gains—the community at large, looking forward to new markets, new investments, and a more ready circulation both of land and money—are little likely to oppose it. But the revenue ?—the Chancellor of the Exchequer? In 1843, the revenue from legacies was 1,240,8041.; from probates. andadministrations, 998,964/.; in all, 2,239,7681. of revenue from taxes on succession. This revenue is derived from duties on sue-, cession to personal property alone. This sum would be much increased by subjecting all the real property of the kingdom to the tax on successions. Considering the great increase that has taken place in the value of real property within the last ten years, and the further increase likely to be the result of diminishing the obstacles to free commerce in everything that " savours of the realty" by the reductions in stamps, it is not too much to as- sume that it would more than compensate for any possible (but unlikely) falling off. According to a late return the real property assessed to the Income-tax in the year ending return, April 1815 was 49,660,7281., and for the year ending 5th April 1843 it was 80,519,084/. It may now, therefore, be roughly stated at the latter sum. The personal property subject to Probate and Legacy duty may be stated at 45,000,000/. a year. The value of the real property is nearly double. If therefore a duty similar to Probate and Legacy duty were raised from it, no difficulty would be found in raising the amount of the revenue now arising from the ad valorem duty on deeds ; and if it were thought advisable a much larger sum might be raised. On these general grounds we maintain, that the readjustment of the Stamp-duties levied on deeds and successions would benefit all, and increase instead of diminishing the revenue. If we look to the last Revenue-account, there is a decrease almost everywhere but in Stamps, and there an increase of nearly half-a-million on the year and a large increase on the quarter. Who can doubt that this is owing to small dealings with land in the shape of railway' shares and debentures ? For good or for evil, the employment o capital is taking this direction : for that deeds are necessary; and when they are permanently held, mortgages and settlements. will follow. The growing wish of tenants to hold farms on leases, and of landlords to gratify them, is creating an increased demand for deeds subject to the Stamp-duties. There could not be a safer time to diminish these duties, even without the security of an increased revenue from successions. And to redress such a standing and obvious grievance as the Stamp-laws in their present state, some risk might legitimately be run. Thousands of persons. have now a beneficial interest in land who never held it before. There is now gross evasion of the Stamp-laws in the dealings by which this interest is acquired or transferred ; and in many cases the stamp prevents the fair dealing. Let Government keep pace with the movement, and avail itself of so favourable an oppor- tunity, by remodelling the Stamp-duties in the way suggested, to increase the revenue and benefit the community at large.