Stamp Act

What Is A Stamp Act?

Stamp acts have been used by nations (most notably Britain) to tax the transfer of certain documents. For example, a transfer of a check in the Netherlands back around 1624 would require that a tax (called the stamp duty) be paid and the check stamped before it was considered the property of the new owner. As this is an extremely cumbersome process, a prepaid adhesive stamp is more commonly adopted.

The first known instance of the stamp tax was in the Netherlands in 1624, where the populace voted on finding a new form of tax. This tax is widely used today in countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, China, etc. on documents such as stocks, bonds, and other monetary notes. Of course, today, since most of these items are in non-physical forms, the approval is more of an "electronic stamp" rather than anything physical.