L.20 per annum, (except leases for not more than three lives, or a term of years determinable with a life or lives not exceeding three, and by whomsoever granted, and except leases for a term absolute, not exceeding twenty-one years, granted by ecclesiastical corporations,) are subject to the same duty as conveyances on the sale of lands for a sum of money of the same amount as such fine or premium. Lease without fine or premium, where the yearly rent shall not amount to L.20, Where it shall amount to L.20, and not to L.100, L.1 0 0 1 10 0 000000 123456 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 0 0 Leases granted at a yearly rent and for a fine are subject to ad valorem duty, both in respect of the rent and fine. Leases not otherwise charged, Counterpart of any lease, with a duty not exceeding L.1,-the same duty as on the lease itself, in other cases, Progressive duty on all leases, L.1 15 0 1 10 0 1 0 0 Letter or power of attorney by any petty officer, Letter of atseaman, or marine, or their executors or ad- torney. ministrators, for receiving prize money, Mortgages. memorial shall be written beyond L.1 0 0 The following duties are imposed upon every mortgage, conditional surrender, conveyance in trust for sale, further charge or other security of or affecting any lands, estate, or property, real or personal, heritable or moveable, and also on any agreement or bond, accompanied with a deposit of title-deeds for making a mortgage, or security of any lands, estate, or property, comprised in such title-deeds, or for pledging or charging the same as a security. Where the same respectively shall be made as a security for the payment of any definite and certain sum of money advanced or lent at the time, or previously due and owing, or forborne to be paid, being payable, not exceeding L.1 0 0 1 10 0 0 0 300 0 0 500 0 0 1234567692 L.50, 8 0 0 900 0 0 And where the same shall be made as a security for the repayment of money to be thereafter lent or paid, or which may become due on an accountcurrent, either with or without any sum already advanced or due, except any sums to be advanced for the insurance of any property comprised in such mortgage against fire, or for the insurance of any lives, pursuant to any agreement in any deed whereby any annuity shall be granted for such lives. If the sum secured, or to be ultimately recoverable, shall be uncertain and without any limit, L.25. But if the total amount thereof be limited not to exceed a given sum, the same duty as on a mortgage for such limited sum. The stamp on securities for the transfer or retransfer of stock or funds, whether government or the East India or South Sea Companies, is to be determined by the value according to its average price at the date of the mortgage, or on either of the ten days preceding. Where both stock and money are secured, a stamp is chargeable in respect of each. Where distinct sums of money or stock are secured to different persons, the ad valorem duty is chargeable on each sum, and not on the aggregate amount." The progressive duty on mortgages, as in other cases where an ad valorem duty is paid, is L.I. Where copyholds are mortgaged jointly with Copyholds. other property, the ad valorem duty is chargeable on the deed or instrument relating to such other property, even though the copyholds are in fact conveyed or charged by a distinct instrument from the other property; but if they are mortgaged alone, and a conditional surrender or grant forms the only or one of the securities, the stamp is imposed on the surrender or grant, if made out of the court, or the copy of court roll, if made in court. The following exemptions from the preceding ad valorem duties are given by the act: Any deed or other instrument made for the fur- Further asther assurance of property already charged by a surance. deed or instrument which shall have paid the ad va lorem duty on mortgages. Any deed or other instrument made as an addi Reed v. Willmott, 5 M. and P. 553; 7 Bing. 577; and see suggestion on this head, ante, 459. P Reed v. Willmott, 5 M. and P. 553; 7 Bing. 577. curity. Additional se- tional or further security for any sum or stock already secured by a deed or instrument which shall have paid the ad valorem duty, in case such further security be made by the same persons who made the original security. By the 3d George IV., c. 117, sec. 3, any deed or other instrument, being an additional security for money or stock previously secured by a bond upon which the ad valorem duty has been paid, are chargeable only with the ordinary duty payable on deeds. A further security by any other party than the original mortgagor, not being within these exceptions, would be liable to the ad valorem duty on original mortgages, unless the primary security was simply a bond, in which case the exemption applies whether the person executing the further security was the same person who gave the bond or not. Unless the language of the exemptions is read with attention, a confusion may arise between instruments for the further assurance of an estate, or property, already charged, and instruments for the further security of sums already secured; the exemption, in the former case, is not, as in the latter, confined to instruments executed by the original mortgagor. Thus, if the heir was to confirm a mortgage by his ancestor, the deed of confirmation would require no ad valorem stamp; but if the ancestor had mortgaged Black Acre to secure a given sum, and the heir should afterwards convey White Acre to the mortgagee, as a further security, the ad valorem duty would be payable, and so (as the editor conceives) if the father had mortgaged his estate for life in Black Acre, and the son afterwards conveyed his reversion in fee as a further security, an ad valorem stamp would be payable; for, though its subject is, popularly speaking, the same property, it is not the same estate in the legal sense of the word. If two or more persons, who had mortgaged different premises, or their different shares or estates in the same property, concur in an assignment of the respective mortgages to the same person, for the purpose of making all the several properties or shares liable to the aggregate amount of the several mortgages, which is sometimes the case where a tenant for life, and the person entitled in remainder, have separately mortgaged their different interests, it would appear that a fresh ad valorem duty is payable; for, so far as the deed operates as a further security for the original mortgage debts, it is not made by the same person who made the original security, which it must be, in order to bring it within the exemption in the 55th George III. Mistakes are often fallen into in determining the Future advanproper stamps payable on mortgage deeds, from the ces. erroneous notion, that the amount actually lent or forborne, at the time of the execution of the securities, is the criterion by which the estimate should be made; whereas the duty is also payable upon any money which may afterwards be lent, advanced, or paid, or which may become due on an account-current, of which the repayment is secured by the mortgage. A mortgagee would be entitled to a lien on the premises for his costs, without any agreement for that purpose, and no higher stamp is payable in consequence of the insertion of such a stipulation. If the mortgage contains a power to lay out money in completing an unfinished house, or making extensive improvements on the premises, or (as is often the case in mortgages of life interests) for insuring the mortgagor's life, and also an agreement that the premises should not be redeemable till those sums and interest on them be paid, a further ad valorem duty would be required, which (unless the sum ultimately to be recovered under the mortgage should be limited) must be the highest stamp. Such, as above stated, is the general rule, but there are several exceptions to it; thus the legislature have exempted from stamp-duty premiums payable upon |
