"Stamp duty is a tax that is levied on single property purchases or documents (including, historically, the majority of legal documents such as cheques, receipts, military commissions, marriage licences and land transactions). A physical revenue stamp had to be attached to or impressed upon the document to show that stamp duty had been paid before the document was legally effective. More modern versions of the tax no longer require an actual stamp."
So it's a bribe to get officials to validate documents in a legal transaction between two consenting parties!
There's no other reason for it that I can see!
"The duty is thought to have originated in Venice in 1604, being introduced (or re-invented) in Spain in the 1610s, the Spanish Netherlands in the 1620s, France in 1651, Denmark in 1657, Prussia in 1682 and England in 1694."
Maybe in Venice in 1604 - that's how the stamp man was paid, but today, those officials are employed by the state and paid for through other forms of taxation. It leads to the logical absurdity that we pay tax to employ people to levy a tax that exists only to pay people to tax legal transactions that have nothing to do with them. How is this still a thing?
What the hell is stamp duty?
Re: What the hell is stamp duty?
Meanwhile, in other tax and climate related news:
Lawyers warn EU against labelling gas as a 'green' investment
By Kate Abnett and Simon Jessop
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The environmental law firm ClientEarth has warned the European Union that it would be breaching its own laws if it labels investments in gas-fuelled energy as "green" in upcoming finance regulations.
In a Wednesday letter to the bloc's executive seen by Reuters, ClientEarth said categorising gas as environmentally friendly would violate other laws, including the EU's legally binding target to reduce its net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 from 1990 levels, and bring them to zero by 2050.
The EU is close to finishing the climate portion of its sustainable finance taxonomy, a first-of-its-kind regulation that ostensibly aims to steer private capital out of polluting economic activities and into those the EU deems environmentally friendly.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/e ... d=msedgntp
Climate change: Stop smoke and mirrors, rich nations told
By Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent, Milan
Rich countries' plans to curb carbon are "smoke and mirrors" and must be urgently improved, say poorer nations.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-58774786
Lawyers warn EU against labelling gas as a 'green' investment
By Kate Abnett and Simon Jessop
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The environmental law firm ClientEarth has warned the European Union that it would be breaching its own laws if it labels investments in gas-fuelled energy as "green" in upcoming finance regulations.
In a Wednesday letter to the bloc's executive seen by Reuters, ClientEarth said categorising gas as environmentally friendly would violate other laws, including the EU's legally binding target to reduce its net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 from 1990 levels, and bring them to zero by 2050.
The EU is close to finishing the climate portion of its sustainable finance taxonomy, a first-of-its-kind regulation that ostensibly aims to steer private capital out of polluting economic activities and into those the EU deems environmentally friendly.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/e ... d=msedgntp
Climate change: Stop smoke and mirrors, rich nations told
By Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent, Milan
Rich countries' plans to curb carbon are "smoke and mirrors" and must be urgently improved, say poorer nations.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-58774786