Stamp Duties Consolidation Act 1999 section 10

Adhesive stamps

Section 10 sets out the rules for using adhesive stamps to denote stamp duty, including the requirement that such stamps be issued by the Revenue Commissioners, the obligation to cancel them once affixed, and the penalties for failure to cancel or for fraudulent interference with adhesive stamps.

• Where stamp duty is permitted to be denoted by adhesive stamps, only stamps issued by the Revenue Commissioners may be used for that purpose.
• An instrument is not regarded as duly stamped unless each adhesive stamp is properly cancelled — for example, by the person writing their name or initials across the stamp together with the date, so that the stamp cannot be reused on another instrument.
• A penalty of €630 applies where a person who is required by law to cancel an adhesive stamp neglects or refuses to do so.
• Fraudulently removing an adhesive stamp from an instrument, reusing a removed stamp, or selling or uttering a removed stamp constitutes a revenue offence prosecutable under TCA 1997 section 1078.