STSM154030 | Compliance: stamp duty compliance miscellaneous: Date of execution

The charging of a document to a penalty upon late stamping and interest on late payment depends upon the date the instrument was executed. So evidence of that date is of prime importance. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary HMRC should accept the date of a document as shown upon it, without question.

If HMRC suspects that the date has been erased and a fresh date entered, or that it has been altered in some other way, an enquiry should be issued seeking an explanation.

A common mistake at the turn of the year is for a document to be dated with the wrong year, which is then erased and corrected. In January, any document which has had the year only corrected upon erasure may be accepted without further enquiry unless there is firm evidence that it was executed in the previous year.