32Liquidator to give notice

32 Liquidator to give notice

(1) Every person who is liquidator of any company which is being wound‑up and which is, or has been, a manufacturer or wholesale merchant, shall, within 14 days after he has become liquidator of that company, give notice in writing to the Commissioner of his appointment as liquidator. (2) The Commissioner shall, as soon as practicable thereafter, notify to the liquidator the amount which appears to the Commissioner to be sufficient to provide for any tax which then is or will thereafter become payable by the company. (2A) Subject to subsection (2B), the liquidator: (a) shall not, without the leave of the Commissioner, part with any of the assets of the company until the liquidator has been so notified; (b) shall set aside, out of the assets available for payment of ordinary debts of the company, assets to the value of an amount that bears to the value of the assets available for payment of ordinary debts of the company the same proportion as the amount notified by the Commissioner under subsection (2) bears to the sum of: (i) the amount notified by the Commissioner under subsection (2); (ii) any amount of prescribed tax that the Commissioner is required to notify to the liquidator under an Act other than this Act and has so notified; and (iii) the aggregate of the ordinary debts of the company (excluding any debt in respect of tax or prescribed tax); and (c) is, to the extent of the value of the assets that the liquidator is so required to set aside, liable as trustee to pay the tax. (2B) Nothing in paragraph (2A)(a) prevents the liquidator parting with assets of the company for the purpose of paying debts of the company that are not ordinary debts of the company. (2C) For the purposes of subsections (2A) and (2B), a debt of the company is an ordinary debt if: (a) the debt is an unsecured debt; and (b) the debt is not required, under a law of the Commonwealth or of a State or Territory, to be paid in priority to some or all of the other debts of the company. (2D) In subsection (2A), prescribed tax means any amount that the Commissioner is required to notify under a section of another Act that corresponds to this section. (2E) If the liquidator refuses or fails to comply with any provision of this section or refuses or fails as trustee duly to pay the tax for which the liquidator is liable under subsection (2A), the liquidator: (a) is, to the extent of the value of the assets that the liquidator is required under subsection (2A) to set aside, personally liable to pay the tax; and (b) is guilty of an offence punishable on conviction by a fine not exceeding $1,000. (3) Where more persons than one are appointed liquidators or required by law to carry out the winding‑up, the obligations and liabilities attaching to a liquidator under this section shall attach to each of such persons: Provided that where any one of such persons has paid any of the tax due in respect of the company being wound‑up the other person or persons shall be liable to pay that person each his equal share of the amount of the tax so paid. (5) Nothing in this section shall limit the liability of a liquidator under section 69 in respect of any transactions, acts or operations effected or done by him as liquidator in respect of any goods. (6) In this section, unless the contrary intention appears, tax includes: (a) further tax; and (b) additional tax under section 29 or Part VIII.