Stamp duty attaches to documents. However, what happens if there is a commercial transaction where there are no documents? What happens if the participant claims the transaction was done orally and recorded by videotape? What happens stamp duty if there is nothing to stamp? It might seem like a bizarre, Kafkaesque concept. But it is a real one, and a situation that has been troubling the Revenue Commissioners for some time after the tax authority discovered the use of the scheme in a number of transactions, particularly ‘put and call’ transaction on hotels. A test case recently came before the…

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