When was the stamp duty established?

Do you know what stamp duty is? If not, then it means that you have never encountered buying and selling securities or have not made transactions with real estate. Unfortunately, in Russia the tax and legal literacy of the population is by no means high. Therefore, our article will prove useful to many.

What is stamp duty?

The taxation system seems to the Russians "a Chinese letter," most of us do not know how many taxes we pay to the state's treasury, and even less interested in the tax system of other countries. The stamp duty still causes a lot of questions among specialists, they can not decide which category to include - duties or taxes. After all, it fits the definition of both.

We can say that stamp duty is a special tax that levies the state from private and legal entities for transactions with real estate and securities. It is paid without fail when applying to state institutions.

How is the tax paid?

Stamp duty is a unique tax, the payment of which is confirmed by official papers or seals. Strictly speaking, the name received this tax for the same reason. Initially, his payment was confirmed by issuing a special stamped paper with a stamp or seal. The actual stamp duty is taken for the confirmation by the state of any actions of its citizens.

The accrual of stamp duty

Each state independently establishes the accrual of stamp duty on the basis of the adopted legislative framework. In some countries, it is a kind of value-added tax and is charged as a percentage of the amount spent on the purchase. Other states set a fixed amount that varies depending on the transaction.

To pay stamp duty can both both sides of the transaction, and one. This is also regulated at the legislative level. Usually, the state very carefully monitors the payment of this tax, in the event of violations, a natural or legal person can wait for criminal prosecution.

This practice is quite common abroad, and recently in European countries there has been a tendency to change in the taxation system. Europeans are awed with horror for its tightening, which will significantly affect their welfare in the face of the economic crisis.

Russia: history of stamp duty

If you are interested, when the stamp duty was established in our country, then it is worth looking into the distant seventeenth century. The first to set this tax Peter I, releasing a special paper with a seal. In the following years, the tax legislation developed, and by the nineteenth century the stamp duty in Russia was finally fixed in the form of a tax.

The Ministry of Finance was in charge of collecting this tax, it also monitored the implementation of the law and identified non-payers. At the beginning of the twentieth century, stamp duty was a rather complex system. It was divided into a simple, having five classifications, and proportional, subdivided into an even more complex and branched structure.

The payment of the tax was made with the help of state-issued stamps. In pre-revolutionary Russia, about thirty-six brands of various species were produced, they were used up to the twenties of the last century.

Payment of stamp duty in modern Russia

In the USSR, they tried to change the royal system of payment of stamp duty, so it was replaced by a single duty, which lasted until the nineties of the last century. After the collapse of the USSR, the government of our country returned to the practice of collecting stamp duty, but this only concerned transactions in securities. The purchase and sale of land plots and real estate no longer presumed payment of stamp duty.

Currently, Russia has a separate tax on transactions with real estate and securities. Citizens of our country do not pay stamp duty.

USA: the role of stamp duty in the history of the country

The United States and Canada are countries where the population does not pay stamp duty. There is another system of taxation. But sometime this tax played the role of a catalyst that radically changed the course of events in the American colonies.

Many historians believe that the stamp duty of 1765 was the last straw that outweighed the cup of patience of the colonists, who began to seriously think about secession from England. The fact is that Britain during this period experienced a tight budget deficit and tried to cover it with the introduction of new taxes. Naturally, the colonies suffered most from them. Tax oppression and so caused a lot of protests among the population of the North American colonies, but most of the money went to the needs and development of the settlements themselves, so the protests were extinguished by the authorities. But in 1765 the act of stamp duty was collected, which future Americans had to pay for virtually all items and goods purchased in the territory of America. This caused a storm of protest, especially disturbing in Boston. The law on stamp duty encouraged the townspeople to go out onto the streets of the city with placards and slogans. They were outraged by the fact that the tax would go completely into the treasury of Great Britain. In addition, this stamp duty was five times higher than a similar tax in Britain itself.

Eventually, after the wave of demonstrations that swept across the country, the law on exorbitant tax was never adopted. Until now, stamp duty in the United States is not paid by citizens of the country and by migrants residing in the territory of the state and not having citizenship.

United Kingdom: taxation system

The stamp duty of Great Britain concerns only transactions with real estate. It is paid by individuals and legal entities when buying or selling apartments, land plots, industrial premises and residential buildings. In any case, the British will be forced to pay this state fee, as they call this tax. In one way or another, it has been present in the life of the English since the end of the seventeenth century. It was then that the stamp duty was first applied.

In the UK, it is calculated on a special scale as a percentage of the purchase amount. It is worth noting that the tax is quite flexible, it ranges from 2 to 14%. The higher the purchase price, the more money you will have to pay to a resident of the Misty Albion.

At first, the system was imperfect, and with a small transition from one category, the purchase amount to another tax was significantly increased. In 2014, the scale of accruals was edited and became more fair.

In 2015, the UK government passed a law that requires additional stamp duty in the event that the purchase amount exceeds 40,000 euros, the buyer will be forced to pay an additional 3% of the purchase price in addition. In Britain, tax is borne by the buyer.

Who in the UK can not pay the tax?

Naturally, there is a category of population that is exempt from paying stamp duty. In the UK, this is possible only if you receive a real estate as a gift or by inheritance. This category includes entering into the rights to use real estate as a result of the division of property in the divorce proceedings.

In all other cases, when dealing with real estate you need to pay tax. And only in case of presentation of documents on payment you can get a certificate of ownership of the property.

Calculation of stamp duty in Britain: who does it?

Surprisingly, in the country there are no special institutions involved in the calculation and control of the payment of stamp duty. This function is entrusted to the British themselves. The fact is that usually all real estate deals are dealt with by lawyers. In the amount of their fee is the calculation of the tax, they do it with the help of a special calculator.

Under the law, stamp duty is payable within thirty days after the entry into force of the transaction. Any day, a Briton can pay the right amount and get a long-awaited certificate confirming the ownership of real estate. Currently, an amendment to the stamp duty law is under consideration. The deadline for tax payment is planned to be reduced to two weeks. Terms for companies and individuals are identical, but for legal entities, the tax is charged slightly differently.