Taxes Management Act 1970

62 Priority of claim for tax

(1) No goods or chattels whatever, belonging to any person at the time any tax becomes in arrear, shall be liable to be taken by virtue of any execution or other process, warrant, or authority whatever, or by virtue of any assignment, on any account or pretence whatever, except at the suit of the landlord for rent, unless the person at whose suit the execution or seizure is made, or to whom the assignment was made, pays or causes to be paid to the collector, before the sale or removal of the goods or chattels, all arrears of tax which are due at the time of seizure, or which are payable for the year in which the seizure is made:

Provided that, where tax is claimed for more than one year, the person at whose instance the seizure has been made may, on paying to the collector the tax which is due for one whole year, proceed in his seizure in like manner as if no tax had been claimed.

(2) In case of neglect or refusal to pay the tax so claimed or the tax for one whole year, as the case may be, the collector shall distrain the goods and chattels notwithstanding the seizure or assignment, and shall proceed to the sale thereof, as prescribed by this Act, for the purpose of obtaining payment of the whole of the tax charged and claimed, and the reasonable costs and charges attending such distress and sale, and every collector so doing shall be indemnified by virtue of this Act.