HIRE-PURCHASE.

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19662, 23 August 1935, Page 4

HIRE-PURCHASE.

always son 1. dozens of agreements every monlii from every pari of .New Zealand I" Ihe Wellington office lor piaiper stamping here. Wo could send some firms bankrupt if we were In insist on payment of tlu; IT) line for ever.) doeumeni id faiill. A reasonable altitude is being laken depending un the circumstances."

MANY DEEDS UNSTAMPED. FIRMS LIABLE TO PENALTIES.■ Many firms conducting’ hire-pur-chase business in New Zealand are being visited by inspectors o! the Stamp Duties Department with a view to seeing it stamp duty payable on agreements has been paid as required under, the Stamp Duties Act. Thousands, of hire-purchase agreements have been found to be without the is 3d stamp required of law to. be affixed to every document evidencing- a transaction of £2O or over. Many mercantile firms are liable to lines of £5, plus payment of is 3d, for every document in their possession not stamped within three months of being signed. The Commissioner of Stamp Duties, however, has power to remit or reduce the penalty if the defaulter can show good cause why the documents have not been stamped. An official of the'Stamp Duties office told the Dominion representative that where good cause could be shown, only a small fine would be insisted upon. In some cases documents had been stamped on payment of a penal Is 3d. Since one firm in Wellington has over 1000 documents in its possession, and a great number of them have not been stamped as required, insistence on payment of the £5 fine would possibly result in the firm being very seriously affected. Other firms have as many as 800 hire-purchase agreements. One firm with nearly 500 unstamped agreements gave the excuse that it “was not aware of the regulations." There are no regulations, and the matter has been the subject of Act of Parliament for very many years.

Unstamped Deeds Unenforceable.

Inspectors are examining documents of Arms dealing in radio sets, motorcars, milking machines, furniture, vacuum cleaners, musical instruments, and even hooks, legal or otherwise. “ The position discloses great ignorance on the part of the commercial community,” the reporter was toJd. ” In the first place, assuming the omission to pay stamp duty is due to ignorance, no such contract can he proved in court if stamp duty has not been paid’on it as required of tire Act. Many dealers, of course, rely upon the formality of the document and the solemn process of having it signed and witnessed, to have its due effect upon the hirer. It even may he that some dealers have reasoned that few transaction!: would need lo he proved in court and that if any were required in he proved a £5 line could be paid to remedy Ihe matter. In almost every case, however, the. dealers have been ignorant of the position." The law should be amended, in the view of some ollioials, lo provide that documents liable Lo fs 3d stamp duly should he produced at the stamp office for stamping just as it is obligatory for parlies to <>l!ier documents lo do. The reason the matter lias escaped the notice of the department for so long is said to he that hirc-purchaso agreements do not have to he produced at the Stamp Duties Olllcc, hut may be stamped by the party liable as •receipts are stamped. Discharges of mortgages and more formal documents subject to higher duties must he produced for proper stamping by olllelals. The position was suspected by an official in Die course of his duties when he discovered that 800 agreements in one Blenheim office had not been stamped within three months. Since then inspectors have been active. ” it has absolutely surprised me to learn ihe position," said one official.

“ hots of big firms have not paid slump duly. Wo thought they bin. been doing II because I hey have the power to stamp Ihe documents themselves. (hie Dominion-wide firm has