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Business and commercial law
Trading lawfully in Papua New Guinea: choosing a structure, registering it, paying tax, getting licensed — and what a seller owes a customer.
This topic covers both sides of the counter. For people starting or running a business, the registration and compliance steps that keep it lawful. For customers, the rules governing what a trader may do and how to complain. The topic also carries a ten-part series on stamp duty.
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What Is Stamp Duty, and Who Has to Pay It?
A tax on documents. Which instruments are chargeable, who bears the duty, and the 60-day deadline. Opens a ten-part series.
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Do I Pay Stamp Duty When I Buy a House?
The citizen first-home concession, the residential rates, and the general 2% to 5% scale.
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What Stamp Duty Is Payable on a Lease?
Rates by term length, the jump at five years, and the refund on early determination.
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Is There Stamp Duty on Transferring Shares?
1% ordinarily, but land-holding shares are taxed on the property scale.
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Which Stamp Duties Have Been Abolished?
Seven duties removed in 2008, and why Schedule 1 still prints them.
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What Happens If I Do Not Stamp a Document?
An offence, compounding penalty duty, and a document you cannot use in court.
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How Is Stamp Duty Assessed, and Can I Object?
Assessment, amendment, the 30-day objection and the 60-day appeal.
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Is There Stamp Duty on a Gift or an Inheritance?
Gifts are dutiable; estate transfers to beneficiaries are exempt.
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Can I Get a Refund of Stamp Duty?
When a refund arises, and the 12-month limit that ends the right.
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Splitting a Deal to Reduce Duty
Section 16A, the void-instrument rules, and transactions done without a document.