Section 37
Witholding of tax in respect of interest paid to non-resident persons
(1)
Where any person is liable to pay to another person, not known to him to be resident in Brunei Darussalam, any interest which is chargeable to tax under this Act, the person paying the interest shall deduct therefrom tax at the rate of 2.5 per cent on every dollar of the interest, and shall immediately give notice of the deduction of tax in writing and pay to the
Collector the amount so deducted and every such amount shall be a debt due from him to the Government and shall be recoverable as such.
(2)
The Collector may, if he thinks fit, allow any bank or financial institution to give notice of the deduction of tax and make payment of the amount so deducted within such other period and subject to such conditions as he may determine.
(3)
Where a person fails to make a deduction of tax which he is required to make under subsection (1), any amount which he fails to deduct shall be a debt due from him to the Government and shall be recoverable as such.
Income Tax
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(4)
If the amount of tax which is required to be deducted under subsection (1) is not paid to the Collector —
(a)
within 14 days after the payment of the interest from which the tax is to be deducted, a sum equal to 5 per cent of such amount of tax shall be payable; and
(b)
within 30 days after the payment of the interest from which the tax is to be deducted, an additional penalty of one per cent of such amount of tax shall be payable for each completed month that the tax remains unpaid, but the total additional penalty under this paragraph shall not exceed 15 per cent of the amount of tax outstanding.
(5)
Without prejudice to any other provision of this Act, if any person after deducting the tax required to be deducted under subsection (1)
fails to give notice of such deduction to the Collector within 14 days after such deduction, he shall be guilty of an offence and shall on conviction be liable to a penalty equal to 3 times the amount of tax so deducted and shall also be liable to a fine not exceeding $10,000, imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years or both.
(6)
The Collector may —
(a)
compound any offence under subsection (5) and may before judgment stay or compound any proceedings thereunder;
and
(b)
for any good cause remit the whole or any part of the penalty payable under subsection (4)(b).
(7)
For the purposes of this section —
(a)
the manager or principal officer of a company shall be answerable for doing all such acts, matters and things as are required to be done by the company under this section; and
(b)
interest is deemed to have been paid by a person to another person although it is not actually paid to that other person but is reinvested, accumulated, capitalised, carried to any reserve or credited to any account however designated, or otherwise dealt with on behalf of that other person.
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