PLEADING

“Yang Arif, may it please this honourable court. My name is Natasha Adilla and I appear as
the counsel representing the appellant. The case before us concerns on whether the stamp
duty on the transfer of a half-share in the land was payable.”

1.0 The legal interest passed in the other half share which Peter Lai Khee-Chin transferred to
himself is purely notional.
1.1 In respect of Peter’s half share, no beneficial interest shall pass in the property
conveyed or transferred from himself to himself as any personal transfers made
does not involve any kind of interest.
1.1.1 Section 16(4) of the Stamp Ordinance 1949 - “no beneficial interest passes
in the property conveyed or transferred, or made to a beneficiary by a
trustee or other person in a fiduciary capacity under any trust.”
1.2 Court of Appeal in Re Robb’s Contract held that the document in question was one
under which no beneficial interest in the property conveyed or transferred passed,
so that by virtue of Section 74(6) of the Finance Act 1910, no stamp duty was
payable on such document apart from adjudication duty. It, however, shall be noted
that Section 16(4) of our Ordinance is in pari materia with Section 74(6) of that
English Act.
1.3 Therefore, it has been clearly stated in both authorities that a conveyance or transfer
under which no beneficial interest passes in the property conveyed or transferred is
not chargeable with stamp duty.

Yang Arif, if I may not be anymore assistance to the court, the appellant now rests its
case. Much obliged.