Stamp Duties (Amendment) Act 2002 - Singapore Statutes Online

REPUBLIC OF SINGAPORE

GOVERNMENT GAZETTE

ACTS SUPPLEMENT

Published by Authority

NO. 38]

Friday, December 13

[2002

The following Act was passed by Parliament on 25th November 2002 and assented to by the President on 30th November 2002:—

Stamp Duties (Amendment) Act 2002

(No. 38 of 2002)

I assent.

S R NATHAN,

President.

30th November 2002.

Date of Commencement: 1st January 2003

An Act to amend the Stamp Duties Act (Chapter 312 of the 2000 Revised Edition) and to make consequential amendments to other written laws.

Be it enacted by the President with the advice and consent of the Parliament of Singapore, as follows:

Short title, commencement and application

1.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Stamp Duties (Amendment) Act 2002 and shall come into operation on such date as the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, appoint.

(2) Sections 3, 5, 6(b), 9(c), (d) and (e), 10 and 11 shall not apply to instruments made before the date of commencement of this Act.

Amendment of section 2

2. Section 2 of the Stamp Duties Act (referred to in this Act as the principal Act) is amended by deleting the definition of “contract note”.

Amendment of section 16

3. Section 16 of the principal Act is amended by inserting, immediately after subsection (3), the following subsections:

“(3A) For the purpose of subsection (3) —

(a)

a conveyance or transfer shall be treated as a conveyance or transfer made in consideration of marriage if —

(i)	the transferor is a party to the marriage or is a parent, grandparent or sibling of a party to the marriage;
(ii)	the transferee is a party to the marriage;
(iii)	the property or interest in the property conveyed or transferred is the matrimonial home of the parties to the marriage;
(iv)	the property or interest in the property is conveyed or transferred within the specified time period; and
(v)	there is no other property or interest in the property conveyed or transferred to the parties on the occasion of that marriage in respect of which ad valorem duty has not been charged because marriage was the consideration; and

(b)

a conveyance or transfer shall not be treated as a conveyance or transfer made in consideration of marriage if —

(i)	the marriage is between 2 parties who had previously been married to each other; and
(ii)	ad valorem duty was not charged on any property or interest in the property conveyed or transferred to the parties on the occasion of the previous marriage because marriage was the consideration.

(3B) In subsection (3A) —

“parent”, in relation to a party to the marriage, means —

(a)	a natural parent of the party;
(b)	a person by whom the party was adopted in accordance with any written law relating to the adoption of children; or
(c)	a step-parent of the party,

and “grandparent” shall be construed accordingly;

“specified time period” means —

(a)	one year before or after the date of solemnization of a marriage; or
(b)	such other time period as may be prescribed in lieu of the time period specified in paragraph (a).”.

Amendment of section 22A

4. Section 22A(3) of the principal Act is amended by inserting, immediately after the word “effected” in the 3rd line, the words “or agreed to be effected”.

Repeal and re-enactment of section 33

5. Section 33 of the principal Act is repealed and the following section substituted therefor:

“Directions as to disposal of shares in certain circumstances

33. Where a disposal of shares in a company by a transferor to a transferee is effected by —

(a)	the cancellation of the shares of the transferor in the company; and
(b)	the issue of new shares in that company to the transferee,

such disposal of shares shall be treated as a transfer of shares from the transferor directly to the transferee and ad valorem duty shall be charged on any instrument that, in the opinion of the Commissioner, effects, whether directly or indirectly and whether wholly or partially, any arrangement for the disposal of the shares.”.

Amendment of section 36

6. Section 36 of the principal Act is amended —

(a)

by inserting, immediately after the word “liable” in paragraph (a), the words “under section 34”;

(b)

by deleting the word “and” at the end of paragraph (d); and

(c)

by deleting paragraph (e) and substituting the following paragraphs:

“(e)	any instrument executed by or on behalf of or in favour of a co-operative society registered under the Co-operative Societies Act (Cap. 62) or executed by an officer or member of any such co-operative society and relating solely to the business of the co-operative society where, but for this exemption, the co-operative society would be liable under section 34 to pay the duty chargeable on that instrument;
(f)	any instrument whereby any security is assigned, transferred or negotiated to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (whether on sale or otherwise) under the Exchange Control Act (Cap. 99);
(g)	any instrument made by the Collector of Land Revenue under the Land Acquisition Act (Cap. 152);
(h)	any deed, conveyance, assignment or other assurance which relates solely to immovable property or to any mortgage, charge or other encumbrances on, or any estate, right or interest in, any immovable property or stock or shares which are part of the estate of any bankrupt (including any debtor proceeded against under the Bankruptcy Act (Cap. 20)), and which, after the execution of the instrument, either at law or in equity, is or remains the estate of the bankrupt (including any debtor proceeded against under that Act) or of the Official Assignee, and any bond or other instrument relating solely to the property of any bankrupt; and
(i)	any instrument of transfer lodged under section 125 or 126 of the Land Titles (Strata) Act (Cap. 158) except where the transfer relates to any designated land as defined in section 126A of that Act.”.

Amendment of section 37

7. Section 37 of the principal Act is amended —

(a)

by deleting the words “, upon payment of the relevant adjudication fee prescribed in the Fourth Schedule,” in the 5th and 6th lines of subsection (1); and

(b)

by inserting, immediately after subsection (1A), the following subsection:

“(1B) The person seeking the opinion of the Commissioner under subsection (1) as to the amount of duty chargeable shall pay the relevant adjudication fee prescribed in the Fourth Schedule at such time as the Commissioner may determine, and such fee shall remain payable notwithstanding that he subsequently withdraws his application for adjudication.”.

Amendment of section 39A

8. Section 39A(1) of the principal Act is amended by deleting the words “section 37” and substituting the words “any provision of this Act”.

Amendment of First Schedule

9. The First Schedule to the principal Act is amended —

(a)

by deleting sub-paragraph (i) of Article 3(g) and substituting the following sub-paragraph:

“(i)	the beneficial interest in the property passes

The same duty as in paragraph (a), (b) or (c), as the case may be”;

(b)

by inserting, immediately after paragraph (g) of Article 3, the following paragraph:

“(h)	of any property or any interest thereof which is distributed in specie to a shareholder of a company by the liquidator of the company after the liabilities of the company have been satisfied —

(i)	where the shareholder became a shareholder of the company only after the winding up proceedings had commenced

The same duty as in paragraph (a), (b) or (c), as the case may be

(ii)	in any other case

$10”;

(c)

by relettering the existing paragraph (h) of Article 3 as paragraph (i);

(d)

by inserting, immediately below Article 5 under the heading “Description of Instrument relating to immovable property and stock or shares”, the following words:

“Exemption:

The duplicate or counterpart of any instrument which has been exempted from duty or in respect of which duty has been remitted”; and

(e)

by deleting Article 6 and substituting the following Article:

“6

EXCHANGE

Any instrument whereby immovable properties are exchanged or agreed to be exchanged

The same duty as for a conveyance on sale for each of the immovable properties in the exchange”.

Amendment of Third Schedule

10. The Third Schedule to the principal Act is amended by deleting Articles 2 and 3 and substituting the following Articles:

“2	CONVEYANCE

—

Article No. 3 (a), (c) to (i)

The grantee, transferee or lessee

Article No. 3 (b)

The grantor, transferor
or lessor

EXCHANGE

—

Article No. 6

Same as a conveyance”.

Consequential amendments to other written laws

11. The provisions of the Acts specified in the first column of the Schedule are amended in the manner set out in the second column thereof.

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