ICAI has received a copy of the report of the Revenue Commissioners and Glenkerrin Homes Limited [2007 IEHC 182], which was delivered on 22 May 2007. This case deals with section 40 of the Stamp Duties Consolidation Act, 1999. The taxpayer had acquired land in Palmerstown, Dublin for €31.6m. The payment for the land was arranged as follows: €3.16m cash deposit and an undertaking signed by the purchaser, together with a guarantee, on completion of the sale. The taxpayer presented the transfer for stamping.

The Revenue assessed the stamp duty as €2.844m, i.e. 9% of the entire purchase price. The taxpayer argued that the stamp duty should only be chargeable on the deposit of €3.16m as the undertaking should be treated as a non-marketable security which had no value at the date of the transfer. The basis for the taxpayer's argument was that there was no amount due on the security at the date of the transfer – the undertaking and guarantee resulted in the balance being payable to the vendor six days after the completion of the sale.

The High Court ruled that stamp duty was due on the entire purchase price of €31.6m. There was detailed discussion on the meaning of “due”.

As section 40 was amended by the Finance Act 2005 and the case deals with the section 40 prior to the amendment, the judgement must be seen in this context.

A more detailed review of the case is included in Section 2.02.