34Recovery from third party

##### 34 Recovery from third party (1) The Commissioner may direct an entity (the third party) who owes, or may later owe, money (the available money) to another entity that has a GST debt (the GST debtor) to pay some or all of the available money to the Commissioner in accordance with the direction. (2) The Commissioner must give a copy of the direction to the GST debtor. (3) The direction cannot require an amount to be paid to the Commissioner at a time before it becomes owing by the third party to the GST debtor. (4) The third party is guilty of an offence if the third party fails to comply with the direction, so far as the third party is able to do so. Maximum penalty: 20 penalty units. > Note 1: Chapter 2 of the Criminal Code sets out the general principles of criminal responsibility. > Note 2: See section 4AA of the Crimes Act 1914 for the current value of a penalty unit. (5) If an entity is convicted of an offence in relation to a refusal or failure of the third party to comply with subsection (4), the court may (in addition to imposing a penalty on the convicted entity) order the convicted entity to pay to the Commissioner an amount up to the amount involved in the refusal or failure. (6) Any payment made by the third party under this section is taken to have been made with the authority of the GST debtor and of all other entities concerned, and the third party is indemnified for the payment. (7) If the whole of the GST debt of the GST debtor is discharged before any payment is made by the third party, the Commissioner must immediately withdraw the direction and notify the third party that it has been withdrawn. (8) For the purposes of this section, the third party is taken to owe money to the GST debtor if: (a) money is due or accruing by the third party to the GST debtor; or (b) the third party holds money for or on account of the GST debtor; or (c) the third party holds money on account of some other entity for payment to the GST debtor; or (d) the third party has authority from some other entity to pay money to the GST debtor; even if the payment of the money to the GST debtor is dependent on a pre‑condition that has not been fulfilled. (9) For the purposes of this section, money that has been paid by an entity to a building society for the issue of withdrawable shares in the capital of the society, but has not been repaid, is taken to be: (a) if the money is repayable on demand—money due by the building society to the entity; (b) if the money is not repayable on demand—money that may become due by the building society to the entity. (10) In this section: > building society means a society registered or incorporated as a building society, co‑operative housing society or other similar society under the law in force in a State or Territory. > GST debt means any of the following amounts payable by an entity (whether or not the amount has become due for payment): (a) a net amount or amount of GST; (b) penalty under this Part; (c) a judgment debt, or costs, for GST or penalty under this Part; (d) a fine, or costs, that a court has imposed for an offence against the GST law; (e) an amount that a court has ordered the entity to pay to the Commissioner, following conviction of the entity for an offence against the GST law.