Finance Act, 1994

Offences in relation to tax stamps.

74.—The Principal Act is hereby amended by the insertion of the following section after section 10:

“10A.—(1) Subject to the provisions of Regulation 4 of the Regulations of 1992 and with the exception of cases referred to in the proviso to subsection (1) of section 2A of this Act, any person who offers for sale or delivery, where such sale or delivery does not take place under a duty-suspension arrangement, in the State cigarettes otherwise than in a pack or packs to which a tax stamp, on which duty at the appropriate amount has been paid, is affixed in the prescribed manner shall be guilty of an offence and the cigarettes in respect of which the offence has been committed and any goods which are packed with or used to conceal the said cigarettes shall be liable to forfeiture and, where the cigarettes are found in, on, or in any manner attached to, any vehicle or conveyance, the said vehicle or other conveyance shall be deemed to have been made use of in the conveyance of the said cigarettes and shall also be liable to forfeiture.

(2) Any person who counterfeits, alters or otherwise makes fraudulent use of, or who is knowingly concerned in holding, selling or dealing in a counterfeited or altered tax stamp shall be guilty of an offence.

(3) A person who is guilty of an offence under subsection (1) or (2) of this section shall be liable on conviction to a penalty of £1,000 in respect of each such offence.

(4) In a prosecution for an offence under subsection (1) of this section, it shall be presumed until the contrary is shown that duty had not been paid in respect of any pack or packs which do not have a tax stamp affixed thereto.”.