Stamp duty on a sale deed in Tamil Nadu
Charged under the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 as it applies in Tamil Nadu, computed on the value of the property rather than only on the agreed price, and payable before or at the time the deed is executed.
- Who sets the figureA charge on this subject belongs to a body that can change it by publishing something. Knowing which body, and under which Act, is what makes the current number findable at all.
Tamil Nadu does not run a separate state stamp code the way Karnataka does. Stamp duty in Tamil Nadu is charged under the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 — the central Act — as amended in its application to the state, with the rates for each kind of instrument in the Schedule to that Act as it stands for Tamil Nadu.
The Registration Department, Government of Tamil Nadu, headed by the Inspector-General of Registration, administers both the duty and the registration. Its sub-registrar offices are where a deed is presented, and its portal is where the valuation and the current charges are published.
The state's power to set the rate comes from the same constitutional entry that gives Karnataka its own Act: rates of stamp duty on documents other than those in the Union List are a state subject. Two states, one central machinery, two different prices for the same instrument.
The Act, and the section
- Indian Stamp Act, 1899 — section 3
The charging section — it makes the instruments listed in the Schedule chargeable with duty.
- Constitution of India, Seventh Schedule — List II, entry 63
Puts the rates of stamp duty on documents other than those in the Union List with the states.
What we could not establish
A Tamil Nadu Stamp Act, 2019 has been enacted. Whether, and from what date, it has been brought into force in place of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 in its application to the state is something this page has not verified, and it is exactly the kind of question a page like this gets quietly wrong for years. Ask the Registration Department, or your own advocate, which Act governs the instrument you are about to execute.
SourcesRegistration Department, Government of Tamil Nadu — TNREGINET — Inspector General of Registration (opens in a new tab)Legislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India — India Code — the bare Acts (opens in a new tab)
- Indian Stamp Act, 1899 — section 3
- Where the current figure is publishedThe address to go to instead of trusting a number on a page like this one. If a figure matters to your decision, take it from here on the day you need it.
The Registration Department, Government of Tamil Nadu, through the TNREGINET portal. That is where the department publishes the guideline value for a street or a survey number, and where its offices, forms and charges are listed.
TNREGINET is also the register itself: encumbrance certificates and document searches run from the same portal, so the address that tells you what a charge is, is the address that will later show you that the charge was paid.
- What the figure is charged onThe part buyers get wrong. Two homes at the same agreed price can carry different charges, because the agreed price is not always the amount the charge is computed on.
The value of the property for the purposes of the stamp law, not the agreed price on its own. Tamil Nadu publishes that value — it calls it the guideline value — and where the consideration in the instrument falls below it, the published value governs. The duty is worked out on whichever of the two is higher.
Tamil Nadu's version of the same word is different from Karnataka's, and the difference is worth holding on to if you are looking at property on both sides of the border: Karnataka publishes a guidance value, Tamil Nadu a guideline value. Same idea, two names, two publishers, two portals — and neither of them is a market price or an opinion about what your property is worth.
Where an instrument is presented at a value the registering officer believes to be understated, the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 as it applies in Tamil Nadu provides for a reference to the Collector for determination of the market value, and duty follows that determination.
The Act, and the section
- Indian Stamp Act, 1899 — section 47-A
The undervaluation provision as it applies in Tamil Nadu: the registering officer may refer an instrument to the Collector where the value set out appears to be understated, and duty is charged on the value determined.
SourcesRegistration Department, Government of Tamil Nadu — TNREGINET — Inspector General of Registration (opens in a new tab)Legislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India — India Code — the bare Acts (opens in a new tab)
- Indian Stamp Act, 1899 — section 47-A
- Who owes itNot always the person who hands over the money. On one of these charges the obligation sits with the buyer and almost nobody knows it, which is how a penalty arrives years later.
The buyer, by default. Under the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 the expense of providing the proper stamp on a conveyance falls on the grantee unless the parties have agreed otherwise — the same default that operates in Karnataka, and the same answer to it: if somebody else is bearing it, put it in the document.
The Act, and the section
- Indian Stamp Act, 1899 — section 29
In the absence of an agreement to the contrary, the expense of providing the proper stamp on a conveyance is borne by the grantee.
- Indian Stamp Act, 1899 — section 29
- When it falls dueLate is a different amount from on time, and on some of these it is a different document as well. The deadline runs from an event, not from your convenience.
Before or at the time of execution. The Indian Stamp Act, 1899 requires an instrument executed in India to be stamped before or at the time of execution, and an instrument that is not duly stamped runs into a separate problem later: the Act restricts what may be done with it in evidence until the position is cured.
Registration then runs on the central clock, identical to Karnataka's: four months from execution under section 23 of the Registration Act, 1908, with delay dealt with under sections 25 and 34 on payment of a fine.
The Act, and the section
- Indian Stamp Act, 1899 — section 17
Instruments executed in India are to be stamped before or at the time of execution.
- Indian Stamp Act, 1899 — section 35
An instrument that is not duly stamped is not admissible in evidence or acted upon, subject to the section's own machinery for curing the defect.
- Registration Act, 1908 — section 23
Fixes the period for presenting a document for registration — four months from execution.
SourcesLegislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India — India Code — the bare Acts (opens in a new tab)Registration Department, Government of Tamil Nadu — TNREGINET — Inspector General of Registration (opens in a new tab)
- Indian Stamp Act, 1899 — section 17
- What proves it was paidA payment you cannot evidence later is a payment you may be asked to make again. This is the piece to keep, and the piece to ask for before you sign anything.
The registered instrument with the sub-registrar's endorsement, and the receipt for what was paid. Afterwards, an encumbrance certificate taken from TNREGINET for the period covering the transaction shows the registration to anyone who searches — which is the check a lender runs, and the check you should run on the seller before you become one.
The Act, and the section
- Registration Act, 1908 — section 49
Sets out what an unregistered document cannot do, which is the reason the endorsed original matters as much as the payment does.
SourcesRegistration Department, Government of Tamil Nadu — TNREGINET — Inspector General of Registration (opens in a new tab)Legislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India — India Code — the bare Acts (opens in a new tab)
- Registration Act, 1908 — section 49