Section 63 Stamp Duties Act

Section 63 of Stamp Duties Act 1939 is about Duty on gifts inter vivos. It provides as follows:

(1) Any conveyance or transfer operating as a voluntary disposition inter vivos shall be chargeable with the like duty as if it were a conveyance or transfer on sale, with the substitution in each case of the value of the property conveyed or transferred for the amount or value of the consideration for the sale: Provided that this section shall not apply to a conveyance or transfer operating as a voluntary disposition of property to a body of persons incorporated by a special Act, if that body is by its Act precluded from dividing any profit among its members and the property conveyed is to be held for the purposes of an open space or for the purposes of its preservation for the benefit of Nigeria.

(2) A commissioner may be required to express his opinion under section 16 of this Act on any conveyance or transfer operating as a voluntary disposition inter vivos, and no such conveyance or transfer shall be deemed to be duly stamped unless a commissioner has expressed his opinion thereon in accordance with that section.

(3) Where any instrument is chargeable with duty both as a conveyance or transfer under this section and as a settlement under the heading “SETTLEMENT” in the Schedule to this Act, the instrument shall be charged with duty as a conveyance or transfer under this section, and not as a settlement.

(4) Any conveyance or transfer (not being a disposition made in favour of a purchaser or incumbrancer or other person in good faith and for valuable consideration) shall, for the purposes of this section, be deemed to be a conveyance or transfer operating as a voluntary disposition inter vivos, and (except where marriage is the consideration) the consideration for any conveyance or transfer shall not for this purpose be deemed to be valuable consideration where the commissioner is of opinion that by reason of the inadequacy of the sum paid as consideration or other circumstances the conveyance or transfer confers a substantial benefit on the person to whom the property is conveyed or transferred.

(5) A conveyance or transfer made for nominal consideration for the purpose of securing the repayment of an advance or loan or made for effectuating the appointment of a new trustee or the retirement of a trustee, whether the trust is expressed or implied, or under which 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, whether expressed or implied, or a disentailing assurance not limiting any new estate other than an estate in fee simple in the person disentailing the property, shall not be charged with duty under this section, and this subsection shall have effect notwithstanding that the circumstances exempting the conveyance or transfer from charge under this section are not set forth in the conveyance or transfer.

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