Electronic Stamp Duty Payment System
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this research was to develop a computerized process of applying for and paying
for stamp duty. This is simply a change in the process of assessing, that is, knowing what you
supposed to pay and for what instrument and actually paying for stamp duty. The study critically
analyses the manual method of collecting stamp duty in Nigeria and uses ideas so gathered to
design a new site (Electronic Stamp Duty Payment System) for use by the Tax Administrators in
Federal Inland Revenue Services, Credit Officers in the bank, insurance companies, hire
purchase companies, taxpayers/clients e.t.c. from anywhere across the country for payment of
stamp duty. The new site allows the Admin to login, create instrument type, verify declared
instrument, authenticate a document, generate stamp certificate, view property status of
instrument and generate account report. Also, the new site allows the clients to login, create
account, declare instrument, make payment, track instrument declaration status, view property
status of instrument and apply for duplicate certificate. The system was analyzed and designed
using object oriented analysis and design methodology. It was implemented in java using eclipse
development environment IDE. Other tools used for the application are unified modeling
language tool (UML) for analysis and design, HTML, CSS and mySQL database management
system for permanent storage of application data. Innovations in the new system includes: online
application for duplicate stamp certificates, certificate authentication facility on the FIRS web
portal to allay fear of fake/counterfeit certificates and automatic generation of stamp certificate
removing fatigue of physical embossment.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page i
Certification page ii
Approval page iii
Dedication iv
Acknowledgement v
Abstract vi
Table of contents vii
List of figures ix
List of tables x
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.0 Introduction 1
1.1 Statement of problem 2
1.2 Objectives of the study 3
1.3 Significance of the study 3
Chapter 2: Literature Review
2.0 Introduction 4
2.1 Theoretical Background 4
2.2 Review of Related Literature 6
2.2.1 An Overview of stamp duty 6
2.2.2 History of stamp duty 7
2.2.3 Stamp duty advantages 9
2.2.4 Online stamp duty application system 10
2.2.5 Studies related to online stamp duty payment application system 13
2.2.5.1 E-ticketing 13
2.2.5.2 E-banking 14
Chapter 3: System Analysis and Design
3.0 Introduction 17
3.1 Description of the existing system 18
viii
3.2 Analysis of the proposed system 19
3.2.1 Object-Oriented Analysis of the proposed system 20
3.3 Design of the proposed system 22
3.3.1 Object-Oriented Design of the proposed system 22
3.3.2 Class Diagram of the proposed system 22
3.3.3 Sequence Diagram of the proposed system 25
3.3.4 Database Design 28
3.3.5 System Architecture 30
3.3.6 Input Design 30
3.3.7 Output Design 34
3.3.8 Algorithm Design 35
Chapter 4: System Implementation
4.0 Introduction 38
4.1Choice of development Environment 38
4.2Implementation Architecture 40
4.3 System implementation 41
4.3.1 The main menu 41
4.3.2 The submenus 42
4.4 Software Testing 48
4.5 Documentation 48
4.4.1Users Manual 48
4.4.2 Source code listing (See Appendix A) 49
4.2.3 Sample output (See Appendix B) 49
Chapter 5: Summary and Conclusion
5.0 Summary of the achievements of the work 50
5.1 Conclusion 51
5.2 Recommendations 51
5.4 Suggested areas for further works 52
References 53
Appendices 56
Appendix A: Source Code Listing 56
Appendix B: Sample Output 75
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 Introduction
With the advent of digital technology, postal services all over the country seem to be
fading fast into complete irrelevance. What should be done, from a marketing perspective, to
stop the Nigerian postal service from going out of business?
To revamp this organization, efforts are to be made to revitalize stamping (N50-
stamping) on receipts (in conformity with the Stamp Duty Act 2004, as amended in 2010). This
law states that receipts on transaction in Nigeria would not be authenticated without affixing
postage stamps on them. With this, legal documents (e.g. lease agreements, deposit agreements,
staff employment contracts, staff promotion letters, purchase order agreement and any other
agreement covered by law) would not be legal unless the duty stamp was affixed on them.
Stamp duty is a Non-Tax Revenue (NTR) that are imposed by specific Acts of parliament
and administered by ministries and other government departments. It is not a tax on transactions
rather it is a tax on commercial and legal documents which record and give effects to certain
transactions. Stamp duty in a simple term is a levy, charge or duty on a value documents to make
them legitimate in the courts of law. A value document is usually one that represents the interest
of two or more parties. Stamp duty payable on specified instruments is either ad valorem (at a
percentage rate) or fixed. And where the transaction is orally effected or it arises solely from the
conduct of the parties no duty will be due since no document will be available for stamping. The
Federal Government impose charge or collect duties upon instruments relating to matters
between a company and an individual or groups whereas State Governments charge or collect
duties of instruments executed between persons or individuals. Although, the rate of duties
chargeable has to be agreed with the Federal Government.
Some of the examples of instruments and value documents that attract Stamp Duty
include, but are not limited to: agreement or memorandum of agreement, hire purchase
agreement, solemn declaration, affidavit, mortgaged deed, debenture, lease agreement, letter of
credit, promissory note, divorce deed etc. Again not all documents are chargeable with duty.
Instruments that are exempted include cheques, documents relating to the transfer of stock and
shares, bank documents regarding savings and transfer between associated companies etc.
2
Today, most of the transactions are conducted electronically which has greatly hampered
collection of stamp duty using adhesive paper stamps on such transaction since they are not in
physical form. Therefore, to effectively monitor these transactions, an electronic means has to be
deployed.
However, the previous system of physical embossing was unfriendly and characterized
by constant movement. There were long queues, congestions and delay of service delivery.
Besides, the embossing machine used to make impressions on the instruments was used by other
Government departments, and pressing of the appropriate stamp on the instruments was done at
one place-the ministry of finance, planning and Economics Development. The process was
manual with assessments done by Federal Inland Revenue Services thereby not facilitating
clients to understand the assessment process and basis of assessment. A client had to pay the fees
in only one bank and had to return the next day.
Another challenge was difficulties in storage and retrieval of stamp records, the old
process was prone to paper and process – related fraudulent practices, the procedure was
cumbersome and had challenges like unsecure and unreliable collection mechanism and poor
service delivery as staff was overwhelmed by the manual work. This puts a number of clients at a
risk of holding instruments that are not duly stamped.
This work is therefore, aimed at solving problems pertinent to this situation. Specifically,
to develop a computerized process of applying for and paying for stamp duty. This is simply a
change in the process of assessing, that is, knowing what you are supposed to pay and for what
documentation (instrument) and actually paying stamp duty. The new system will provides for
amendment like in instances when a wrong document was chosen during declaration on the
portal. It will also streamlines processes and improve voluntary compliance. Captures data into a
secure database, which allows client’s data to be easily assed anytime. And enable users to
perform transactions in the comfort of their homes, offices or any place with internet
connectivity.
1.1 Statement of Problem
Noticeable problems in stamp duty collection include:
1. Stamp counterfeiting.
2. Poor revenue generation.
3
3. Inadequate education on tax matter.
4. Leakages of revenue accruing to the government from the sale of stamps
1.2 Objectives of the Study
To develop a system that should be able to:
1. eliminate stamp counterfeit.
2. reduce costs of compliance and improve tax compliance.
3. enable easy detection of defaulters as necessitated by inefficient manual systems
1.3 Significance of the Study
The study if implemented in real life would be of immense benefit to the Nigerian
Governments, FIRS, taxpayers, policy makers, researchers and academicians in the following
ways:
1 Checking of fraud: The stamp certificate is auto generated through a secure process in e-
Stamp that assigns a certificate barcode which is registered in our database. This means
that if someone produces a fake/counterfeit certificate, it will not be in our database and
cannot be validated in our system.
2 The system reduces administrative workload and increase staff productivity:
The stamp certificate is electronically generated removing fatigue of physical
embossment. This in effect means no more embossing of instruments with stamps.
3 Online application for duplicate stamp certificates: In case the small stamp could be
creased or destroyed as in the old case of physical embossment, the system will allow you
get a duplicate certificate if the need arises.
4 It improves the economy of the implementing organization and the country: Increased
stamp revenue to the Governments since more people will want to have their instruments
issued stamp certificates as a result of gained knowledge and more simplified process.
5 It saves time: Reduced contact hours in FIRS office thus freeing taxpayers to use their
time on other value adding engagement.
6 Stamp duty payments can now be made in FIRS partner bank of the client choice.
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