Stamp Duties Consolidation Act 1999 section 79

Conveyances and transfers of property between certain bodies corporate

Section 79 gives relief from stamp duty on conveyances and transfers of property between associated bodies corporate within a 90 per cent group, supported by anti-avoidance rules and a two-year clawback.

• Stamp duty is not charged on a conveyance or transfer of property — stocks or marketable securities, certain insurance policies, or any other property — between associated bodies corporate.
• Bodies are associated where one owns at least 90 per cent of the ordinary share capital of the other, or a third body owns at least 90 per cent of each, with matching entitlement to profits and to assets on a winding-up.
• The relief is refused where the transfer forms part of an arrangement involving a non-associated company in the consideration or a prior transfer, or under which the parties are to cease being associated.
• The relief is clawed back, with interest, if it was not properly due or if the parties cease to be associated within two years, subject to reliefs for genuine liquidations and mergers.