A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999

Chapter 6 - Interpreting this Act  

Part 6-2 - Meaning of some important concepts  

Division 184 - Meaning of entity  

184-1   Entities  

(1)    
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 persons. 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.

(1A)    

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

(2)    
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 1:

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

Note 2:

The entity that is the trustee of a trust or fund does not change merely because of a change in the person who is the trustee of the trust or fund, or persons who are the trustees of the trust or fund.

(3)    
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.

(4)    
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.

Note:

For GST purposes, non-profit sub-entities are treated as entities (see Division 63 ), and government entities can be treated as entities (see Division 149 ).