Stamp Duty and shares, stocks and marketable securities

Shares and rates

You pay a Stamp Duty rate of 1% on:

  • instruments (written documents) that transfer shares, stocks or marketable securities (shares)
  • written options to buy or sell shares
  • written transfers of existing share options
  • written agreements to buy a beneficial interest in shares
  • and
  • transfer orders transferring shares where no written instrument is executed.

Where the special rules in Certain property deriving its value from immovable property apply, you pay a Stamp Duty rate of 7.5%.

To work out the amount of Stamp Duty due, you apply the appropriate rate to the:

  • consideration, in the case of a sale
  • or
  • market value, in the case of a gift.

You may not know the final price on the date of execution (signing, sealing or both) of the instrument. In this case, you pay on the market value of the shares. We outline one exception to this in Stamp Duty and Consideration.

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