Businesses have been warned they need to move fast to switch from cheque payments to electronic payments, or end up paying a massive hike in stamp duty.
In the recent controversial Budget, the Government announced the stamp duty rate on Bills of Exchange, including cheques, is to rise from 30 cent to 50 cent.
Martin Langedijk of Proact Online Solutions in Carlow has warned that this increase will apply to cheques supplied by financial institutions to customers on or after 15 October 2008.
“This means that since December 2007, the stamp duty has risen from 15 cent to 50 cent on cheques.
“For those of you who still use cheques as your business’s main form of payment, your costs over the past 12 months would have risen dramatically, and will now continue to rise even further.
“It’s now time to realise the cost and time savings of electronic payments and banking,” he warned.
By John Kennedy