10Right of contribution and apportionment of liability

10 Right of contribution and apportionment of liability

(1) Where: (a) the persons included in an eligible beneficiaries class are jointly and severally liable to pay trust recoupment tax on a secondary taxable amount; and (b) a person included in that eligible beneficiaries class has paid any of that trust recoupment tax; the person referred to in paragraph (b) may, in a court of competent jurisdiction, recover by way of contribution and as a debt from any of the other persons included in the class such part of the amount paid as the court considers just and equitable. (2) Where proceedings against a person under Part 4‑15 in Schedule 1 to the Taxation Administration Act 1953 for recovery of any trust recoupment tax payable on a secondary taxable amount are instituted in any court, the court may: (a) on the application of the person, join, as co‑defendant or as co‑defendants in the proceedings, a specified person or specified persons who are included in the eligible beneficiaries class in relation to the secondary taxable amount; and (b) having regard to: (i) the amount or value of any benefit that each co‑defendant has derived, or might reasonably be expected to derive, being a benefit to which subsection 6(4) applies in relation to the person concerned in relation to the secondary taxable amount; and (ii) any other relevant circumstances; determine, on just and equitable grounds, the respective proportions of the amount of the trust recoupment tax that the co‑defendants are liable to pay. (3) In this section trust recoupment tax includes late payment tax and penalty tax.