Can a Company Pay the Stamp Duty on the Transfer of Its Own Shares?
- By : Wong Mei Ying
- Category : Linkedin Post, Mergers and Acquisitions
In practice, I have seen requests for a target company to bear the stamp duty on the transfer of its own shares from the seller to the purchaser.
It may seem commercially convenient, especially where the parties are friendly or related.
However, this raises a question.
๐๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ข๐ฏ๐บ ๐ฆ๐ง๐ง๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ฆ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ท๐ช๐ฅ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ข๐ฏ๐ค๐ช๐ข๐ญ ๐ข๐ด๐ด๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ค๐ฒ๐ถ๐ช๐ด๐ช๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ช๐ต๐ด ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด?
This may give rise to financial assistance issues under section 123 of the Companies Act 2016.
It is a point easily overlooked, especially in friendly deals, but one that should be considered carefully when structuring the transaction.
This post was first posted onย LinkedIn on 11 April 2026.
