Product Code Database
A revenue stamp, tax stamp, duty stamp or fiscal stamp is a (usually) adhesive label used to designate collected or fees on documents, tobacco, alcoholic drinks, drugs and medicines, playing cards, , firearm registration, and many other things. Typically, businesses purchase the stamps from the government (thereby paying the tax), and attach them to taxed items as part of putting the items on sale, or in the case of documents, as part of filling out the form.
Revenue stamps often look very similar to , and in some countries and time periods it has been possible to use postage stamps for revenue purposes, and vice versa. Some countries also issued dual-purpose postage and revenue stamps.
The Revenue Society has defined revenue stamps as " ...stamps, whether impressed, adhesive or otherwise, issued by or on behalf of International, National or Local Governments, their Licensees or Agents, and indicate that a tax, duty or fee has been paid or prepaid or that permission has been granted." Home. The Revenue Society, 2011. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
The use of revenue stamps goes back further than that of postage stamps (Penny Black); the stamps of the of the 18th century were revenues."The Stamp Act of 1765 - A Serendipitous Find" by Hermann Ivester in The Revenue Journal, The Revenue Society, Vol.XX, No.3, December 2009, pp.87-89. Their use became widespread in the 19th century, partly inspired by the success of the postage stamp, and partly motivated by the desire to streamline government operations, the presence of a revenue stamp being an indication that the item in question had already paid the necessary fees. Revenue stamps have become less commonly seen in the 21st century, with the rise of computerization and the ability to use numbers to track payments accurately.
There are many kinds of revenue stamps in the world, and it is likely that many remain unrecorded. Both national and local entities have issued them. Governments have sometimes combined the functions of postage and revenue stamps. In the former British Empire, such stamps were often inscribed " Postage and Revenue" to reflect their dual function. Other countries have simply allowed revenue stamps to be used for postage or vice versa. A revenue stamp authorized subsequently for postal use is known as a postal fiscal. Bhutan, for instance, authorized the use of revenue stamps for postal purposes from 1955 until the first proper postage stamps of the country were issued in 1962. In the Stanley Gibbons catalog, this type of stamp has an F prefix. Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue: Part 21 South-East Asia. 4th edition. London: Stanley Gibbons, 2004, p. 1.
From around 1900, United States revenue stamps were required to be mutilated by cutting, after being affixed to documents, and in addition to being cancelled in ink. A class of office equipment was created to achieve this which became known as "stamp mutilators".
The lowest point in revenue philately was during the middle years of the twentieth century. A Stanley Gibbons children's stamp album from the 1950s warned in its introduction: "Since Philately is the collecting of stamps that are employed in connection with the Posts, do not put in your album fiscals, telegraph stamps, tobacco-tax labels and other such strange things as are often found in some collections.""Stamp Collecting Hints" in Improved Postage Stamp Album. 28th edn. London: Stanley Gibbons, c. 1953, p. 3. This is not a definition of philately that would be recognized today.
More recently, revenue philately has become popular again and now has its own FIP (Fédération Internationale de Philatélie) Commission and is an approved category in FIP endorsed . FIP REVENUE COMMISSION Fédération Internationale de Philatélie 2011. Retrieved 1 October 2011.
Many catalogues have been issued by specialist publishers and dealers but revenue stamps still do not feature in some of the most popular catalogues, for instance by Stanley Gibbons and Michel catalog, unless they are revenue and postage stamps. However, both the standard Scott catalogue and the Scott Specialised United States catalogue feature US revenue stamps. The leading catalogue for revenue stamps of the United Kingdom, the British Commonwealth and several European countries is the Barefoot Catalogue.
Although India is only one of several countries that have used tax stamps on legal documents, it was one of the most prolific users. The practice is almost entirely stopped now, partly due to the prevalence of forgeries which cost the issuing government revenue. Court fee stamp racket busted, The Hindu, Sept. 10, 2003.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Archived here.
|
|
