Australian Capital Territory Numbered Acts Australian Capital Territory Numbered Acts(1) The Commissioner may require a body corporate to appoint, and thereafter maintain at all times, a public officer of the body for the purposes of the tax laws.
(2) A body corporate shall maintain a public officer if required to do so by the Commissioner.
Penalty: 50 penalty units.
(3) A person shall not be appointed as or remain a public officer unless the person—
(a) is an individual who has attained the age of 18 years;
(b) is ordinarily resident in Australia; and
(c) is capable of understanding the nature of his or her appointment as public officer.
(4) An appointment of a public officer is not duly made until written notice of the appointment, specifying the name and residential address of the officer, has been lodged with the Commissioner.
(5) If a body corporate required by the Commissioner to maintain a public officer fails to do so, the Commissioner may appoint a person as the public officer of the body by written notice served on the person and the body.
(6) Service of a document on the public officer of a body corporate shall be sufficient service on the body for the purposes of a tax law, and, if at any time a body corporate required to have a public officer does not have one, then service on a person acting or appearing to act in the business of the body shall be sufficient.
(7) The public officer of a body corporate shall be answerable for the discharge of all obligations imposed on the body under a tax law, and, in case of default, is liable—
(a) in the case of a prosecution for an offence—to the penalty applying to an individual who commits that offence; or
(b) in any other case—to the same penalties as the body.
(8) Everything that the public officer of a body corporate is required to do and does in his or her representative capacity is deemed to have been done by the body, but the absence or non-appointment of a public officer shall not excuse the body from the necessity of complying, or from a penalty for failure to comply, with a provision of a tax law and the body is liable to comply with the tax laws as if there were no requirement to appoint a public officer.
(9) A document served on or requirement made of the public officer of a body corporate is deemed to have been served on or made of the body.
(10) Any civil or criminal proceedings brought under a tax law against the public officer of a body corporate are deemed to have been brought against the body, and the body is liable jointly with the public officer for any penalty imposed on the public officer, or for compliance with any order made against the public officer.