17Request where dividend deemed to be paid to trustee

##### 17 Request where dividend deemed to be paid to trustee (1) Where: (a) by the operation of subsection 16(5), a dividend (in this subsection referred to as the deemed dividend) deemed to have been paid by a company is included in the assessable income of a trust estate of a year of income; (b) but for this subsection, the trustee of the trust estate would be liable to be assessed and to pay tax under section 99 or 99A of the Assessment Act in respect of an amount attributable, in whole or in part, to an amount (in this subsection referred to as the relevant amount) being the deemed dividend or a part of the deemed dividend; and (c) if the deemed dividend had been a dividend in fact paid by the company, the trustee would have had a discretion to pay the deemed dividend or part of the deemed dividend to, or apply the deemed dividend or part of the deemed dividend for the benefit of, a specified beneficiary or specified beneficiaries; the trustee and that beneficiary, or the trustee and all or any of those beneficiaries, as the case may be, may request that, for the purposes of the application of the Assessment Act in relation to the trust estate in relation to the deemed dividend, the trustee shall be taken to have paid to or applied for the benefit of the beneficiary making the request, or to have paid to or applied for the benefit of the beneficiaries making the request in such proportions as are specified in the request, so much of the deemed dividend as is equal to the relevant amount. (2) For the purposes of the application of subsection (1), where the beneficiary or any of the beneficiaries referred to in paragraph (1)(c) is under a legal disability, a request under that subsection may be made on behalf of that beneficiary by another person who is not under a legal disability. (3) A request under subsection (1) shall: (a) be in writing signed by each of the persons making the request; and (b) be sent to or lodged with the Commissioner. (4) On receipt of a request under subsection (1), the Commissioner may grant the request or he may refuse the request. (5) In deciding whether to grant or refuse the request, the Commissioner shall have regard to: (a) the likelihood that any tax that may become payable by reason of the operation of this section in relation to the request will be paid; and (b) any other matters that he considers relevant. (6) Where the Commissioner grants a request made in accordance with subsection (1) in relation to a dividend that is deemed to have been paid by a company and is included in the assessable income of a trust estate, the trustee shall, for the purposes of the Assessment Act, be taken to have paid or applied the dividend, or the part of the dividend to which the request relates, in accordance with the request, on the day on which the dividend is deemed to have been paid by the company.