The Stamp Act

A stamp act is any legislation that requires a tax to be paid on the transfer of certain documents. Those who pay the tax receive an official stamp on their documents, making them legal documents. The taxes raised under a stamp act are called stamp duty. A variety of products have been covered by stamp acts including playing cards, dice, patent medicines, cheques, mortgages, contracts, marriage licenses and newspapers. The items often have to be physically stamped at approved government offices following payment of the duty, although methods involving annual payment of a fixed sum or purchase of adhesive stamps are more practical and common.

This system of taxation was first devised in the Netherlands in 1624 after a public competition to find a new form of tax. Stamp acts have been enforced in many countries, including Australia, Canada, People's Republic of China, Ireland, India, Malaysia, Israel, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

Stamps acts were enacted in various Australian states in 1878, 1882, 1886, 1890, and 1894, with amendments from 1892 to 1907. According to these acts, stamps were required on many types of business transactions: negotiable instruments, promisory notes, bills of lading, and receipts. .

In Western Australia, duties of this type were overhauled in the Western Australian Stamp Act 1921, which took effect on 1 January 2010. In South Australia, the Stamp Duties Act 1923 was first enacted in 1923, then revised or amended almost yearly until its current version of 2017.

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