
A revenue stamp, tax stamp, duty stamp or fiscal stamp is a (usually) adhesive label used to designate collected
tax
A tax is a mandatory financial charge or levy imposed on an individual or legal entity by a governmental organization to support government spending and public expenditures collectively or to regulate and reduce negative externalities. Tax co ...
es or fees on documents, tobacco, alcoholic drinks, drugs and medicines, playing cards,
hunting license
A hunting license or hunting permit is a regulation, regulatory or law, legal mechanism to control hunting, both commercial and recreational. A license specifically made for game hunting, recreational hunting is sometimes called a game license ...
s, 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
postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail). Then the stamp is affixed to the f ...
s, 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.
Description
Revenue stamps are stamps used to designate collected taxes and fees. They are issued by governments, national and local, and by official bodies of various kinds. They take many forms and may be gummed and ungummed, perforated or imperforate, printed or embossed, and of any size. In many countries, they are as detailed in their design as banknotes; they are often made from the same type of paper. The high value of many revenue stamps means that they may contain security devices to prevent counterfeiting.
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."
History
In the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
,
Damga resmi was already in use by the sixteenth century. Records of tax revenue from stamps for silk provide evidence of changes in silk production over time.
The use of revenue stamps goes back further than that of postage stamps (
first used in 1840); the stamps of the
Stamp Acts of the 18th century were revenues. 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
The Stanley Gibbons Group plc is a company quoted on the London Stock Exchange specialising in the retailing of collectable postage stamps and similar products. The group is incorporated in London. The company is a major stamp dealer and phila ...
, 2004, p. 1.
Methods of cancellation
While revenue stamps often resemble
postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail). Then the stamp is affixed to the f ...
s, they are not normally intended for use on mail and therefore do not receive a postal
cancellation. Some countries such as
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...
have issued stamps valid for both postage and revenue, but this practice is now rare. Many different methods have been used to cancel revenue stamps, including
pen cancels, inked
handstamps, perforating,
embossing, hole punching or simply tearing.
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".
Collecting
Revenue stamps were once widely collected by
philatelists and given the same status as
postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail). Then the stamp is affixed to the f ...
s in
stamp catalog
A stamp catalog (or stamp catalogue) is a catalog of postage stamp types with descriptions and prices.
The stamp catalog is an essential tool of philately and stamp collecting. Stamp catalogs are part of philatelic literature.
Similar catal ...
ues and at exhibitions. After World War One, however, they declined in popularity, possibly due to being excluded from catalogues as the number of postage stamps issued rose rapidly and crowded revenues out.
The lowest point in revenue philately was during the middle years of the twentieth century. A
Stanley Gibbons
The Stanley Gibbons Group plc is a company quoted on the London Stock Exchange specialising in the retailing of collectable postage stamps and similar products. The group is incorporated in London. The company is a major stamp dealer and phila ...
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." This is not a definition of
philately
Philately (; ) is the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection and appreciation of stamps and other philatelic products. While closely associated with stamp collecting and the study of postage, it is possibl ...
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
stamp exhibitions.
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, unless they are ''revenue and postage'' stamps. However, both the standard
Scott 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.
Some types of revenue stamps
1871 U.S. Revenue stamp for 1/6 Barrel of beer
Court fees
One of the earliest uses of revenue stamps was to pay court fees. Stamps were used in the Indian feudal states as early as 1797, almost 50 years before the first postal stamps.
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.
Documents
The tax on documents, also commonly known as
stamp duty
Stamp duty is a tax that is levied on single property purchases or documents (including, historically, the majority of legal documents such as cheques, receipts, military commissions, marriage licences and land transactions). Historically, a ...
, is one of the oldest uses of revenue stamps, probably being invented in Spain, and introduced (or re-invented) in the Netherlands in the 1620s, then reaching France in 1651 and England in 1694.
[ Dagnall, H. (1994) ''Creating a Good Impression: three hundred years of The Stamp Office and stamp duties.'' London: HMSO, p. 3. ] Governments enforce the payment of the tax by making unstamped documents unenforceable in court. The tax has been applied to contracts, tenancy agreements, wills etc. A pre-printed revenue stamp appeared on many
hundis of India.
Tobacco and alcohol
In many countries, tobacco and alcohol are taxed by the use of
excise stamps. For instance, the producer may buy stamps from the government which are then affixed to each bottle of alcohol or packet of cigarettes to show that tax has been paid. Often the stamp will be fixed across a seal so that on opening the pack or bottle the stamp is destroyed.
Gallery
File:Fiscal stamps of Punadra, Khadal Ambaliara, Katosan and Jawhar ruled by Koli rulers.jpg, Fiscal stamps of Punadra, Khadal, Ambaliara, Katosan and Jawhar Princely states of Koli rulers in India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
File:Bahrain 1924 revenue stamp.jpg, Bahrain
Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. Situated on the Persian Gulf, it comprises a small archipelago of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island, which mak ...
1924 4a revenue stamp
File:Lady of the Lightbulbs.jpg, Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
1897 $1 electric light inspection stamp from the ''Lady of the Lightbulbs'' issue
File:Classik Cigarette box.JPG, Serbian tobacco tax stamps on cigarette packets
File:Hong Kong 1867 stamp duty revenue stamp.jpg, Hong Kong
Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
1867 3c duty stamp
File:2 shilling passport stamp.jpg, Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
1939 2s passport stamp
File:1899 Malta 5s revenue stamp.jpg, Malta
Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...
1899 5s revenue stamp
File:Hejaz-Revenues-1918.jpg, Ottoman Empire 1918 20 pa on 1pi revenue stamp for the construction of Hejaz railway
File:1918 $1 revenue stamp of Sarawak.jpg, A $1 revenue stamp issued in 1918, featuring Charles Vyner Brooke
Charles Vyner Brooke, (full name Charles Vyner de Windt Brooke, 26 September 1874 – 9 May 1963) was the third and last White Rajah of the Raj of Sarawak.
Early life
Charles Vyner Brooke was the son of Charles Brooke and Margaret de Windt ( ...
, the 3rd and last White Rajah of Sarawak
Sarawak ( , ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. It is the largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia. Sarawak is located in East Malaysia in northwest Borneo, and is ...
File:Thrace-30st.jpg, Thrace (under Allied occupation) 1919 30st revenue stamp
File:1920 8d British National Health Insurance stamp.jpg, United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
1920 8d national health insurance stamp overprinted SPECIMEN
File:Stamp US 1898 0.5c revenue.jpg, United States of America
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguo ...
1898 ½c documentary stamp from the ''Battleship'' issue
File:Stamp US 1930 2c revenue.jpg, United States of America
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguo ...
1930 2c documentary stamp
File:Revenue-Stamp-Spirits-Denmark.jpg, A Danish revenue stamp for spirits
File:Friz.jpg, Old Frizzle, an ace of spades with a Stamp duty in the United Kingdom similar to a banknote
A banknote or bank notealso called a bill (North American English) or simply a noteis a type of paper money that is made and distributed ("issued") by a bank of issue, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued by commerc ...
,The International Playing-Card Society – The Ace of Spades
/ref> see the article: Richard Harding (forger)
File:Nfastamp.jpg, National Firearms Act, $200 stamp
See also
*
Impressed duty stamp
*
Postal tax stamp, a postal stamp which also raises fiscal revenue
*
Stamped paper
*
Revenue stamps of the United States
*
Ryan Collection, a collection of Budapest municipal revenue stamps
*
Stamp duty
Stamp duty is a tax that is levied on single property purchases or documents (including, historically, the majority of legal documents such as cheques, receipts, military commissions, marriage licences and land transactions). Historically, a ...
*
Turner Collection of Newspaper Tax Stamps
References
Further reading
*Catalogues by
Alfred Forbin.
*Catalogues by
Walter Morley.
*
Akerman, Clive. ''The Presentation of Revenue Stamps: Taxes and Duties in South America''. New edition.
The Revenue Society of Great Britain, 2002.
Revenue philatelic societies
American Revenue Association*
Fiscal Philatelic Society
*
The Revenue SocietyThe State Revenue Society
External links
''The American Revenuer'' – archive 1963–2015Revenue and Railway stamps of AustraliaState of New York Stock Transfer Tax stampsUK Duty Stamps Scheme''Revenue Reverend'' websitetimbres-fiscaux.fr(in French)
{{Authority control
Cinderella stamps
Philatelic terminology
Tax