The Sale and Purchase Agreement for any purchase of real estate shall be stamped at the Inland Revenue Board (“IRB”) office. This stamping process for the purpose of imposition of stamp duty, which is a tax imposed on such Sale and Purchase Agreement that may have legal, financial and/or commercial effect.
As a matter of practice, the lawyer in charge will prepare 4 copies of the Sale and Purchase Agreement i.e. one ORIGINAL copy, another copy marked as DUPLICATE, while another 2 additional copies are marked as COPY. If a buyer purchases a property with housing loan/ home financing, the ORIGINAL Sale and Purchase Agreement will be safekept by the financial institution and the DUPLICATE copy is for the vendor. The copies of the same document will be kept by each of the buyer and the purchaser’s lawyer.
It is provided under the Stamp Act 1949 [Act 378] that the Sale and Purchase Agreement must be stamped within 30 days from the date it is being executed to avoid late stamping penalties. In the event the Sale and Purchase Agreement is executed abroad, the stamping period is 30 days from the day such Agreement is received in Malaysia.
The process of stamping the Sale and Purchase Agreement i.e. adjudication, is only to be made online through the Stamp Assessment and Payment System (STAMPS) website at https://stamps.hasil.gov.my . Normally, law firms have their own ID to log in to the STAMPS website for adjudication of any documents including the Sale and Purchase Agreement.
For the purpose of the online adjudication of the same Sale and Purchase Agreement, the digital form to be used in the STAMPS website is the “Penyeteman Am” form. The date in the Sale and Purchase Agreement and date entered in the digital form should be the same since such date will be reflected in the stamp certificate. Should there be any discrepancy, an appeal shall be made to IRB for amendment of the stamp certificate. For that same online adjudication, a scanned copy (pdf) of that Sale and Purchase Agreement shall also be uploaded.
All copies of the Sale and Purchase Agreement i.e. original, duplicate and copy are subject to stamping. Therefore, the applicant must submit the number of Sale and Purchase Agreements to be stamped upon making the submission for adjudication.
Once the application is approved, an assessment notice will be issued that will specify the amount of duty to be paid by the buyer for the Sale and Purchase Agreement. Should the buyer fails to pay the duty within the specified period as stated in the assessment notice, a penalty under section 47A of Act 378 may be imposed against the same buyer. Payment can be made through the STAMPS website.
The stamp duty for the Sale and Purchase Agreement is a fixed duty in which the assessment of such duty is not related to the amount of the purchase price of the real estate but based on a specific fixed rate gazetted under First Schedule Act 378. For the record, as of 2024, the fixed duty for Sale and Purchase Agreement is only RM10.00 for every copy submitted and declared notwithstanding the amount of the purchase price.
The stamp certificate will only be issued by IRB after the payment of the same is made. In the circumstance where the applicant declared only 3 number of additional copies prepared for the Sale and Purchase Agreement, the stamp certificate specifically designed for the ORIGINAL copy of Sale and Purchase Agreement will show the adjudication number without additional marking. Meanwhile, the stamp certificates for the other 3 additional copies declared will display the original adjudication number with additional marking (SALINAN 1/3), (SALINAN 2/3), and (SALINAN 3/3).
Adjudicating the Sale and Purchase Agreement is important for the purpose of financing with the relevant financial institution and for ownership registration at the land office. In addition to that, the stamped Sale and Purchase Agreement shall be accepted as evidence in court whenever it is required. This is as stipulated in subsection 52(1) of the Stamp Act 1949, as follows:
“No instrument chargeable with duty shall be admitted in evidence for any purpose by any person having by law or consent of parties authority to receive evidence, or shall be acted upon, registered, or authenticated by any such person or by any public officer, unless such instrument is duly stamped.”.
Prepared by,
Anis Syahidah Binti Ariffin
TETUAN MISYAIL OTHMAN & CO.