117Public officer of body corporate

117 Public officer of body corporate (1) The commissioner may require a body corporate to appoint, and afterwards maintain at all times, a public officer of the body for the tax laws. (2) A body corporate must maintain a public officer if required to do so by the commissioner. (3) A person must not be appointed as or remain a public officer unless the person— (a) is an individual who is at least 18 years old; and (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 home 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 given to the person and the body. (6) Service of a document on the public officer of a body corporate is sufficient service on the body for 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 is sufficient. (7) The public officer of a body corporate is answerable for the discharge of all obligations imposed on the body under a tax law, and, in case of default, is liable— (a) for 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 taken to have been done by the body, but the absence or non-appointment of a public officer does 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 given to or requirement made of the public officer of a body corporate is taken to have been given to or made of the body. (10) Any civil or criminal proceeding brought under a tax law against the public officer of a body corporate is taken 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.