PART X
MISCELLANEOUS
69. Every public officer having in his custody any register, book, record, paper, document or proceeding the inspection of which may tend to secure any duty, or to prove or lead to the discovery of any fraud or omission in relation to any duty, shall at all reasonable times permit any person authorised in writing by the Commissioner —
(a)
to inspect for such purpose the register, book, record, paper, document or proceeding; and
(b)
to take such notes and extracts as he may consider necessary without fee or charge.
70.
—(1) The Commissioner may, by notice in writing, declare any person to be the agent of any other person for the purposes of this Act, and may require the agent so declared to pay any duty due under this Act from any moneys (including sale proceeds, rents, bank balances, pensions, salary, wages or any other remuneration) which, at the date of receipt of the notice or at any time during a period of 90 days thereafter, may be held by him for or due by him to the other person.
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(2) In default of payment by an agent declared under subsection (1), the duty may be sued for by way of a specially endorsed writ of summons in the name of the Commissioner who shall be entitled to all costs allowed by law against the person thereto.
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(3) For the purposes of this section, the Commissioner may require any person to give him information as to any moneys, funds or other assets which may be held by him for, or of any moneys due by him to, any other person.
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(4) Where any person declared by the Commissioner to be the agent of any other person under subsection (1) is aggrieved by such declaration, he may, by notice in writing to the Commissioner within 14 days after the date of the declaration, or within such further time as the Commissioner in his discretion may allow, object to the declaration.
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(5) The Commissioner shall examine the objection and may cancel, vary or reconfirm the declaration.
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(6) Any person making any payment to the Commissioner under this section shall be deemed to have been acting under the authority of the person by whom any duty is payable and is indemnified in respect of such payment.
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(7) For the purposes of payment of any duty due from any moneys referred to in subsection (1) in a joint account in any bank or from the proceeds of sale of any immovable property owned by 2 or more persons as joint owners, the following provisions shall apply:
(a)
the person declared by the Commissioner under subsection (1) to be the agent of any person who is an owner of such moneys shall —
(i)
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 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 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;
(b)
it shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, that the holders of a joint account at any bank shall have equal share of the moneys in the account as to the date of receipt of the notice under subsection (1) and that the owners of any immovable property shall share the proceeds of sale of the property equally;
(c)
any owner of such moneys who objects to the share presumed under paragraph (b) shall give notice of his objection in writing to the person declared to be the agent under subsection (1) within 28 days of the receipt of the notice of the agent under paragraph (a)(i), or within such further period as the Commissioner in his discretion may allow, and furnish proof as to his share of the moneys;
(d)
where an objection under paragraph (c) has been received, the person so declared to be the agent shall —
(i)
retain the amount of such moneys referred to in paragraph (a)(ii) until such time as the Commissioner by notice under paragraph (e) informs him of his decision on the objection; and
(ii)
inform the Commissioner of the objection within 7 days of the receipt of the objection; and
(e)
the Commissioner shall consider the objection and by notice in writing inform the person declared to be the agent of his decision and the agent shall 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 him for or due by him to the person.
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(8) In this section —
“duty” includes any penalty or any other money which a person is liable to pay to the Commissioner under this Act;
“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 account holders.
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70A.
—(1) Where, at the time of a person’s death, any duty or penalty is due from him under this Act and has not been paid, the Commissioner shall have the same powers and remedies for recovering the duty or penalty so payable from the person’s estate as the Commissioner would have in relation to the person if the person were alive.
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(2) Any such duty or penalty or both shall be payable by the executor or administrator in respect of the deceased person’s estate to the same extent as it would be payable by the person if he were alive.
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(3) This section shall not apply if the duty is assessed after the end of the third year following that year in which the person died.
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70B. Where a company is being wound up, the liquidator of the company shall not distribute any of the assets of the company to the shareholders thereof unless he has made provision for the payment in full of any duty or penalty which may be found payable by the company.
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70C.
—(1) For the purposes of this Act, the Commissioner may give notice in writing to any person requiring him to furnish within the time limited by such notice, not being less than 30 days from the date of service of such notice, to attend personally before him or to produce to him for examination any instrument, book, document, account and other record which the Commissioner may consider necessary.
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(2) Where records are maintained by computer, the person required to make them available for examination shall provide all facilities necessary for obtaining the computer records.
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(3) The Commissioner shall at all times have full and free access to all buildings, places, instruments, books, documents and other records for any of the purposes of this Act, and may, without fee or reward, inspect, copy or make extracts from any such instruments, books, documents, accounts or records.
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(4) The Commissioner may take possession of any such instrument, book, document, account or record where in his opinion —
(a)
the inspection, copying thereof or extraction wherefrom cannot reasonably be performed without taking possession;
(b)
the instrument, book, document, account or record may be interfered with or destroyed unless possession is taken; or
(c)
the instrument, book, document, account or record may be required as evidence in proceedings for an offence under this Act or in proceedings for the recovery of duty or penalty, or in proceedings by way of an appeal against the assessment.
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(5) The Commissioner may require any person to give orally or in writing, as may be required, all such information, facts and circumstances affecting the liability of any instrument to duty.
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(6) Any person who fails or neglects without reasonable excuse to comply with any notice issued by the Commissioner under this section shall be guilty of an offence.
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(7) Any person who, for the purpose of evading any duty under this Act, falsifies or destroys any document, book, account, record or other instrument shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years or to both.
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71. The Commissioner may require any person to produce evidence by way of statutory declaration or otherwise for any purpose connected with the administration of this Act.
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72. The Commissioner may impound any instrument presented to him for stamping where he is of the opinion that it has not been duly stamped or it has been insufficiently stamped, and detain such instrument until the proper amount of stamp duty thereon has been paid.
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73.
—(1) Neither the Government nor the Commissioner shall be responsible for the loss of or for damage to any instrument tendered for stamping while in the custody of the Commissioner.
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(2) No officer of the stamp office shall be responsible for any loss or damage mentioned in subsection (1), unless he has caused it wilfully, fraudulently or by gross negligence.
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74. The Minister may reduce or remit, prospectively or retrospectively, in the whole or any part of Singapore, the duties with which any instrument or any particular class of instruments, or any of the instruments belonging to such class, or any instrument when executed by or in favour of any particular class of persons, or by or in favour of any members of such class, are chargeable.
(1) The Minister may reduce or remit, prospectively or retrospectively, in the whole or any part of Singapore, the duties with which any instrument or any particular class of instruments, or any of the instruments belonging to such class, or any instrument when executed by or in favour of any particular class of persons, or by or in favour of any members of such class, are chargeable.
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75.
—(1) The Commissioner may, if he is satisfied that any money has been overpaid as duty under this Act, certify the amount to be refunded and shall cause the refund to be made immediately.
(2) No refund under subsection (1) shall be made unless a claim in respect thereof is lodged with the Commissioner within 6 months from the date of the overpayment or within such period as the Commissioner may, in his discretion, allow.
(3) Without prejudice to any other remedy provided for under the provisions of this Act for the recovery of any duty, where, for any reason, the whole or any part of any duty, after having been paid, has been erroneously refunded, the person to whom such refund was erroneously made, shall repay the amount refunded to him in excess, within 15 days of his receiving a demand therefor from the Commissioner.
76. All moneys collected under the provisions of this Act shall be paid into the Consolidated Fund.
77. The Minister may make rules to carry out generally the purposes of this Act, and may by such rules prescribe the fines, which shall in no case exceed $1,000, to be incurred on breach thereof.
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