Receipts with Postage Stamps

A recent discovery of old receipts sparked an interest concerning why they all had a postage stamp affixed to them. It was initially assumed that this was for some kind of authenticity purposes because each one had writing or a company stamp across it. However, this seemed unlikely when considering the availability of postage stamps and the ease of reproducing this method.

In actual fact, the stamps indicate the payment of a tax called stamp duty. This was a form of taxation levied on many documents, receipts being one of them.

Stamp Duty

Stamp duty was introduced in the United Kingdom in 1694 and raised revenue by taxing written documents. In the past it has been levied on such documents as apprentices’ indentures, cheques, insurance policies, newspapers, pamphlets and receipts.

A stamp on the document indicated the payment of the tax and made it legally effective. Physical stamps known as revenue stamps predate postage stamps but from 1881 onwards postage stamps were also valid as revenue stamps, hence such inscriptions on them as Postage and Inland Revenue, Postage & Revenue and Postage Revenue. Issuers of the receipt wrote or stamped across it to prevent its reuse for other purposes. Other ways of stamping a document involved impressing the stamp onto it and producing it with a pre-printed stamp.

The digitisation of many stamp taxes saw the demise of the revenue stamps and the Television Licence stamps issued in 1997 were probably the last. The administration of some documents, such as some certificated share transactions, still require physical stamps impressed upon them.

Stamp Duty on Receipts

From 1st January 1892 receipts were subject to stamp duty in accordance with the 1891 Stamp Act. All receipts for two pounds or upwards were subject to the one penny tax which increased to twopence on 1st September 1920 as part of the 1920 Finance act. This may seem a lot until you consider what the changes represent in today’s money. By 2021 standards one penny in 1892 was worth 46p but in 1920 it was worth only 17p. The table below provides more information. The stamp duty on receipts was later abolished, from 1st February 1971, by the 1970 Finance Act .

In today’s money (2021) and according to the RPI: