You can imagine the indignation having just popped the bubbly, celebrating the purchase of a new home and being told you have even more to add to your already considerable spendings.

Stamp duty is the tax on the written documents accompanying certain financial or legal transactions. Under the Stamps Act, transactions incurring stamp duty range from the transfer of shares and the registration of motor vehicles to life insurance and, believe it or not, the sale of goats.

While you may not be selling your beloved Billy, you may well be involved in a property transaction - or two. If this is the case, stamp duty will affect you in a number of ways.

A prudent buyer should obviously factor stamp duty into their financial calculations, according to Tom McCarthy, a director of Biggin & Scott Real Estate.

"Most buyers have to be well informed about stamp duty ... apart from buying into company-share apartments or off-the-plan, there's no way around it," he says.

Company-share apartments (when you buy an apartment as a percentage of shares of a company) only attract a duty on the transfer of shares.

Buying off-the-plan only attracts stamp duty on the building component and not on land component. (Conventional property purchases attract both.)

The savings in this can be quite significant. For instance, MAB Corporation residential sales manager Georgie Taarnby says buyers looking to spend $400,000 on a home can save as much as $25,000 in stamp duty when buying off-the-plan.

The introduction of the GST has brought a number of changes to stamp duty, including the abolition of the duty on listed marketable securities and betting tax.

Apart from rental businesses and the sale of cattle, which incur stamp duty less the GST, all other transactions incur stamp duty on a value including the GST.

Any inquiries about stamp duty can be made to the State Revenue Office on 132161 or at its website