Internal Revenue Service
Revenue Ruling

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 Rev. Rul. 61-73

1961-1 C.B. 716

Caution: Obsoleted by Rev. Rul. 69-227

IRS Headnote

Where stock certificates with canceled documentary stamps attached were destroyed more than three years after affixing and canceling the stamps, a microfilmed reproduction of such certificates is acceptable evidence of the payment of at least some of the documentary stamp tax for the purpose of establishing the applicability of the statutory period of limitation for assessment.

Full Text

Rev. Rul. 61-73

Advice has been requested whether microfilmed reproductions of stock certificates, with canceled documentary stamps attached, may be accepted as evidence of payment of at least some of the stamp tax for the purpose of establishing the applicability of the statutory period of limitation for assessment.

Sections 4301 and 4321 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 impose a stamp tax on each original issue, and on each sale or transfer, respectively, of shares or certificates of stock issued by a corporation.

Section 6001 of the Code requires every person liable for an internal revenue tax to keep such records, render such statements, make such returns, and comply with such rules and regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury or his delegate may from time to time prescribe.

Section 6501(a) of the Code, as amended by the Excise Tax Technical Changes Act of 1958, Public Law 85-859, C.B. 1958-3, 92, effective January 1, 1959, provides, in part, that if a tax is payable by stamp, the amount of the tax shall be assessed at any time after such tax became due and before the expiration of three years after the date on which any part of the tax was paid, and no proceeding in court without assessment for the collection of such tax shall be begun after the expiration of such period.

Revenue Ruling 56-569, C.B. 1956-2, 1002, states that, in general, the only acceptable proof that documentary stamp tax liability has been satisfied by the affixing and canceling of stamps is the presentation of the stamps themselves. Accordingly, canceled stock certificates having, or required to have, canceled documentary stamps affixed thereto may not be destroyed during the period within which assessment may be made of any tax for which liability has been incurred. However, that Revenue Ruling permits (1) the destruction of canceled stock certificates after the expiration of the statutory period of limitation for assessment and (2) the microfilming of stock certificates, with canceled stamps attached, prior to destruction for the purpose of having a permanent record of the documents.

Inasmuch as section 6501 of the Code, as amended, provides, with respect to stamp taxes, that an assessment may be made at any time after such tax became due and before the expiration of three years after the date on which any part of such tax was paid , a taxpayer must be able to show that some part of the tax has been paid in order to establish the applicability of the statutory period of limitation for assessment.

It is held that a microfilmed reproduction of canceled stock certificates, which were destroyed more than three years after affixing and canceling documentary stamps, will constitute acceptable evidence of the payment of at least some of the tax for the purpose of establishing the applicability of the period of limitation for assessment.