Documents and papers not subject to stamp tax.
Section 31
SEC. 31. Documents and papers not subject to stamp tax.—The following instruments, documents and papers shall be exempt from the documentary stamp tax: (a) Bonds, debentures and certificates of indebtedness Government bonds, issued by the Insular Government or any provincial or e e' municipal government. (b) Checks, drafts, warrants, and bills of exchange issued in payment of any debt, obligation, or liability, or in fulfillment of any contract of the Government of the United States, or the Insular Government, or of a provincial or municipal government. (c) Policies of insurance or annuities made or granted by a fraternal or beneficiary society, order, association, or cooperative company, operated on the lodge system or local cooperation plan, and organized and conducted solely by the members thereof for the exclusive benefit of its members and not for profit. (d) Certificates of oaths administered to any government official, in his official capacity, or of acknowledgment by any government official in the performance of his official duties; written appearances in any court by any government official, in his official capacity; certificates of the administration of oaths to any person as to the authenticity of any paper required to be filed in court by any person or party thereto, whether the proceedings be civil or criminal; papers and documents filed in courts for the military, naval, Insular, provincial, or municipal governments, whether civil or criminal; affidavits of poor persons for the purpose of proving poverty; statements and other compulsory information required of persons or corporations by rules and regulations of the military, naval, Insular, provincial, or municipal governments exclusively for statistical purposes and which are wholly for the use of the Bureau in which the same are filed, and not at the instance of, or for the use or benefit of, the person filing the same; certified copies and other certificates placed upon documents, instruments, and papers for the military, naval, Insular, provincial, or municipal governments, made at the instance and for the sole use of some other branch of the military, naval, Insular, provincial, or municipal governments; and certificates of the assessed value of lands, not exceeding two hundred pesos in value assessed, furnished by provincial or municipal treasurers to applicants for registration of title to land. When any bond, note, or other obligation is secured by a mortgage, pledge, deed of trust, or by the assignment or transfer of any documentary security, one tax only shall be collected upon such papers, such tax to be at the highest rate imposed on such mortgage, bond, note, obligation or other document as the case may be.