Stamp duties are taxes levied on legal instruments, used by most
governments to raise revenue. Usually, stamp duty laws are dry and
boring with most amendments affecting only the amounts of revenue
raised by governments from instruments chargeable with stamp
duty.
Recently the Malaysian Stamp Act 1949 ("Stamp
Act") was amended by the Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023,
passed during the second reading in Parliament on 13 December 2023.
The proposed amendments are expected to come into force on 1
January 2024.
Updating of the Stamp Act
The amendments mostly update the Stamp Act for modern day stamp
duty practice by removing references to adhesive stamps, postal
franking and digital franking machines. More importantly the
amendments give legal recognition to electronic instruments for the
purposes of liability for stamp duty. This mean that stamp duty
will only be payable electronically, and evidence of payment of
stamp duty would be generated electronically. The use of
