A NEW TAX SYSTEM (AUSTRALIAN BUSINESS NUMBER) ACT 1999 (ARCHIVE)

PART 4 - RULES FOR INTERPRETING THIS ACT  

Division 14 - Meaning of some important concepts  

SECTION 37 (ARCHIVE)   ENTITY  

37(1)   [Definition]  

Entity means any of the following:

(a) an *individual;

(b) a body corporate;

(c) a corporation sole;

(d) a body politic;

(e) a *partnership;

(f) any other unincorporated association or body of *persons;

(g) a trust;

(h) a *superannuation fund.

Note:

The term entity is used in a number of different but related senses. It covers all kinds of legal person. It also covers groups of legal persons, and other things, that in practice are treated as having a separate identity in the same way as a legal person does.

37(1A)   [Non-entity joint venture]  

Paragraph (1)(f) does not include a *non-entity joint venture.

37(2)   [Trustee]  

The trustee of a trust or of a *superannuation fund is taken to be an entity consisting of the *person who is the trustee, or the persons who are the trustees, at any given time.

Note:

This is because a right or obligation cannot be conferred or imposed on an entity that is not a legal person.

37(3)   [Legal person]  

A legal *person can have a number of different capacities in which the person does things. In each of those capacities, the person is taken to be a different entity.

Example:

In addition to his or her personal capacity, an individual may be:

• sole trustee of one or more trusts; and

• one of a number of trustees of a further trust.

In his or her personal capacity, he or she is one entity. As trustee of each trust, he or she is a different entity. The trustees of the further trust are a different entity again, of which the individual is a member.

37(4)   [Entity]  

If a provision refers to an entity of a particular kind, it refers to the entity in its capacity as that kind of entity, not to that entity in any other capacity.

Example:

A provision that refers to a company does not cover a company in a capacity as trustee, unless it also refers to a trustee.