Money for the purchase, sale and lease of a property can make up a substantial sum and should be properly protected. From 1 Aug 2011, new measures will take place to safeguard conveyancing money including Stamp Duties.
Stamp Duties for the following document types will be safeguarded : -
(i) Conveyance, assignment or transfer of immovable property, i.e. buyers’ and sellers’ stamp duty [see Articles 3(a), (b), (ba), (bb) of First Schedule to Stamp Duties Act];
(ii) Exchange of immovable property [see Article 6];
(iii) Settlement involving immovable property [see Articles 3(e) and 11(a)];
(iv) Transaction between trustees where the beneficial interest in immovable property passes [see Article 3(g)(i)];
(v) Distribution of immovable property in specie to shareholders in company liquidation [see Article 3(h)]; and
(vii) Gift involving immovable property [see Article 7];
(viii) Lease, licence* or tenancy, or a surrender thereof [see Articles 1, 8(a), (b) or (c) or 12] where stamp duty amounts to $5,000 or more;
*Stamp Duty is payable on a licence in the following scenarios:
(a) Where it is executed in connection with a lease (under Article 1) or
(b) Where it amounts to a lease (under Article 8)
Characteristics of a lease and a licence
Details of how Stamp Duty payment will be affected.
For more information on the new measures to safeguard conveyancing money including Stamp Duties, refer to the Conveyancing and Law of Property (Conveyancing) Rules 2011 at www.conveyancing.sg . For clarification, please call 6838 1289.