Power to appoint agent, etc., for recovery of duty
98B.—(1)  The Director‑General may by written notice if the Director‑General thinks it necessary, declare any person to be the agent of any other person.
[25/2011]
(2)  The person (X) declared the agent under subsection (1) is the agent of that other person for the purposes of this Act and may be required to pay any duty due or which may become due from any moneys, including pensions, salaries, wages or any other remuneration, which, at the date of receipt of the notice or at any time not later than 90 days thereafter may be held by X for or due by X to the person whose agent X has been declared to be, and in default of such payment, the duty is recoverable from X in the manner provided by section 10(3).
[25/2011]
(3)  For the purposes of this section, the Director‑General may require any person to give the Director‑General information as to any moneys, funds or other assets which may be held by the person for, or of any moneys due by the person to, any other person.
[25/2011]
(4)  For the purposes of payment of any duty due from any moneys mentioned in subsection (2) in a joint account at any bank or from the proceeds of sale of any immovable property owned by 2 or more persons as joint owners, the following provisions apply:
(a)the person declared by the Director‑General under subsection (1) to be the agent of any person who is an owner of such moneys must —
(i)within 14 days after the receipt of the notice under subsection (1), send a notice by registered post addressed to every owner of such moneys at the address last known to the agent informing the owner of such declaration; and
(ii)retain such amount of the moneys as is presumed under paragraph (b) to be owned by the person from whom duty is due and, subject to paragraph (c), within 42 days after the receipt of the notice under subsection (1), or within such longer period as the Director‑General in his or her discretion may allow, pay over the duty due from such amount to the Director‑General;
(b)it is presumed, until the contrary is proved, that the holders of a joint account at any bank have equal share of the moneys in the account as at the date of receipt of the notice under subsection (1) and that the joint owners of any immovable property share the proceeds of sale of the property equally;
(c)any owner of such moneys who objects to the share presumed under paragraph (b) must give written notice of the owner’s objection to the person declared to be the agent under subsection (1) within 28 days after the receipt of the notice of the agent under paragraph (a)(i), or within such longer period as the Director‑General in his or her discretion may allow, and furnish proof as to the owner’s share of the moneys;
(d)where an objection under paragraph (c) has been received, the person declared to be the agent must —
(i)retain the amount of such moneys mentioned in paragraph (a)(ii) until such time as the Director‑General by notice under paragraph (e) informs the person of the Director‑General’s decision on the objection; and
(ii)inform the Director‑General of the objection within 7 days after the receipt of the objection;
(e)the Director‑General must consider the objection and must by written notice inform the person declared to be the agent of the Director‑General’s decision and the agent must, despite any appeal under paragraph (f), pay over any duty due from the share of moneys decided by the Director‑General as the amount, not exceeding the amount presumed under paragraph (b) to be the share of the person by whom the duty is payable, held by the agent for or due by the agent to the person;
(f)any owner of such moneys aggrieved by the decision of the Director‑General under paragraph (e) may, despite section 100, appeal against the decision to the General Division of the High Court; and
(g)for the purpose of this subsection, “joint account” means any account in the names of 2 or more persons but excludes any partnership account, trust account and any account where a minor is one of the joint account holders.
[25/2011; 40/2019]
(5)  Where an agent makes any payment of moneys to the Director‑General under this section —
(a)the agent is deemed to have been acting under the authority of the person by whom the duty is payable (called in this section the person in default);
(b)the amount of the duty due from the person in default is reduced by the amount paid by the agent to the Director‑General; and
(c)the amount of the reduction is, to the extent of that amount, deemed to have been paid to the person in default in accordance with any law, contract or scheme governing the payment of moneys held by the agent for or due from the agent to the person in default.
[25/2011]
(6)  Where —
(a)an amount of duty is due from any person under this Act otherwise than as an agent under this section;
(b)except for this subsection, an amount is or would, at any time during the period of 90 days after the date of the receipt of the notice in paragraph (c), be payable by the Government to the person in default by or under any written law, contract or scheme; and
(c)before payment of the amount mentioned in paragraph (b) is made to the person in default, the Director‑General serves notice on any public officer by whom the payment is to be made that the duty is due from the person in default,
then the public officer is, despite any other written law, contract or scheme, entitled to reduce the amount mentioned in paragraph (b) by the amount of the whole or any part of the duty mentioned in paragraph (a), and if the public officer makes such a reduction —
(d)the amount of the duty mentioned in paragraph (a) is reduced by the amount of the reduction; and
(e)the amount of the reduction is, to the extent of such amount, deemed to have been paid to the person in default in accordance with any law, contract or scheme governing the payment of moneys mentioned in paragraph (b) to the person in default.
[25/2011]
(7)  In this section, “duty” includes any penalty or any other money which a person is liable to pay to the Director‑General under this Act.
[25/2011]