| Ireland is the only country that has a credit card stamp | | | | credit card stamp duty income per year. |
| duty. A stamp duty is a tax the government imposes | | | | There is also a duty levied on debit laser cards and |
| on certain legal documents. The word "stamp" is a | | | | ATM cards. For these cards, the tax is EUR10 on |
| holdover from the days when an actual physical | | | | every ATM card or debit laser card, or EUR20 |
| stamp was attached to a document to prove that the | | | | annually on every combined Laser/ATM card. |
| duty had been paid. The stamp duty on Irish credit | | | | However, with debit laser cards and ATM cards the |
| cards and charge cards is for EUR30 per year per | | | | duty is affixed on every card rather than every |
| account. Charge cards are like credit cards except | | | | account. |
| there is no interest because you pay it off at the end | | | | While you may balk at having to prove that you've |
| of the month. | | | | already paid the credit card duty once in a year if |
| It is important to note that multiple cards attached to | | | | you've switched cards, or if you think that it's too much |
| one account, such as an account where both spouses | | | | trouble to bother with, consider what would happen if |
| have a copy of the credit card, only one duty is | | | | 100,000 Irish citizens didn't bother. The Irish government |
| imposed. If you transfer a credit card account from | | | | would get an extra EUR30 million in a year for no |
| one issuer to another, you can avoid paying the stamp | | | | good reason. |
| duty again as long as you close the old account and | | | | Same thing with the duties on ATM and debit laser |
| have documentation from the account you're closing | | | | cards. If nobody bothered disputing the duty if they |
| saying so. | | | | switched cards after having paid the tax for the year, |
| In 2007, Ireland had more than 2.3 million credit cards in | | | | the government would rake in an extra EUR10 million. |
| circulation, more than double what it was in 1997. Even | | | | There's no sense in trying to get out of paying the |
| if only a quarter of those were attached to unique | | | | stamp duty, but at the same time there's no reason for |
| accounts, it would add up to over EUR20 million in | | | | you to pay it twice in a year if you don't have to. |