Section 79

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

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

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

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;

any owner of such moneys who objects to the share presumed under paragraph (b) must give notice of that owner’s objection in writing 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 further period as the Comptroller may allow, and furnish proof as to that owner’s share of the moneys;

where an objection under paragraph (c) has been received, the person declared to be the agent must —

retain the amount of such moneys referred to in paragraph (a)(ii) until such time as the Comptroller by notice under paragraph (e) informs the agent of the Comptroller’s decision on the objection; and

inform the Comptroller of the objection within 7 days after the receipt of the objection;

the Comptroller must consider the objection and must by written notice inform the person declared to be the agent of the Comptroller’s decision and the agent must, despite any appeal under paragraph (f), pay over any tax due from the share of moneys decided by the Comptroller as the amount, not exceeding the amount presumed under paragraph (b) to be the share of the person by whom the tax is payable, held by the agent for or due by the agent to the person;

any owner of such moneys aggrieved by the decision of the Comptroller under paragraph (e) may appeal against the decision to the Board of Review and the provisions of Part 8 apply, with the necessary modifications, to the appeal;

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.

the agent is deemed to have been acting under the authority of the person by whom the tax is payable (called in this section the defaulting taxpayer);

the amount of the tax due from the defaulting taxpayer is reduced by the amount paid by the agent to the Comptroller; and

the amount of the reduction is, to the extent of that amount, deemed to have been paid to the defaulting taxpayer 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 defaulting taxpayer.

an amount of tax 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 defaulting taxpayer by or under any written law, contract or scheme; and

before payment of the amount referred to in paragraph (b) is made to the defaulting taxpayer, the Comptroller 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 tax is due from the defaulting taxpayer,then the public officer is, despite any other written law, contract or scheme, entitled to reduce the amount referred to in paragraph (b) by the amount of the whole or any part of the tax referred to in paragraph (a), and if the public officer makes such a reduction —

the amount of the tax referred to in paragraph (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 defaulting taxpayer in accordance with any law, contract or scheme governing the payment of moneys referred to in paragraph (b) to the defaulting taxpayer.