Section 70

the person (X) declared by the Commissioner under subsection (1) to be the agent of any person who is an owner of such moneys must —

within 14 days of 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 X informing the owner of such declaration; and

retain such amount of the moneys as is presumed under paragraph (b) to be owned by the person from whom the duty is due and, subject to paragraph (e), within 42 days of the receipt of the notice under subsection (1) pay over the duty due from such amount to the Commissioner;

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

the owners of any immovable property share the proceeds of sale of the property equally;

any owner of such moneys who objects to the share presumed under paragraph (b) must give written notice of the owner’s objection to X within 28 days of the receipt of the notice sent by X under paragraph (a)(i), or within such further period as the Commissioner may allow, and furnish proof as to the owner’s share of the moneys;

where an objection under paragraph (c) has been received, X must —

retain the amount of such moneys mentioned in paragraph (a)(ii) until such time as the Commissioner by notice under paragraph (e) informs X of the Commissioner’s decision on the objection; and

inform the Commissioner of the objection within 7 days of the receipt of the objection; and

the Commissioner must consider the objection and by written notice inform X of his or her decision and X must pay over any duty due from the share of the moneys decided by the Commissioner 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 X for or due by X to the person.

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);

the agent is indemnified in respect of the payment to the Commissioner;

the amount of the duty due from the person in default is reduced by the amount paid by the agent to the Commissioner; and

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.

an amount of duty is due from any person under this Act otherwise than as an agent under this section;

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

before payment of the amount mentioned in paragraph (b) is made to the person in default, the Commissioner serves notice on any public officer (including an employee appointed under section 9(3) of the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore Act 1992) 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).

the amount of the duty mentioned in subsection (8)(a) is reduced by the amount of the reduction; and

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 subsection (8)(b) to the person in default.