Finance Act, 1976

Amendment of section 174 (power to require production of accounts and books) of Income Tax Act, 1967.

3.Section 174 of the Income Tax Act, 1967 , is hereby amended—

(a) in subsection (1)—

(i) by the insertion after “required” of “by an inspector”,

(ii) by the substitution of “the inspector is” for “the Revenue Commissioners are”,

(iii) by the substitution of “an authorised officer may” for “the Revenue Commissioners may”,

(iv) by the insertion in paragraph (a) after “inspector” of “or to the authorised officer”, and

(v) by the substitution in paragraph (b) of “an authorised officer” for “any officer authorised by the Revenue Commissioners”;

(b) in subsection (2), by the substitution of “authorised” for “other”, and

(c) by the insertion after subsection (2) of the following subsection:

“(3) In this section ‘an authorised officer’ means an inspector or other officer of the Revenue Commissioners authorised by them in writing to exercise the powers conferred by this section”,

and the said subsection (1), as so amended, is set out in the Table to this section.

TABLE

(1) Where a person who has been duly required by an inspector to deliver a statement of the profits or gains arising to him from any trade or profession fails to deliver the statement, or where the inspector is not satisfied with the statement delivered by any such person, an authorised officer may serve on that person a notice in writing or notices in writing requiring him to do any of the following things, that is to say—

(a) to deliver to an inspector or to the authorised officer copies of such accounts (including balance sheets) relating to the trade or profession as may be specified or described in the notice within such period as may be therein specified, including, where the accounts have been audited, a copy of the auditor's certificate;

(b) to make available, within such time as may be specified in the notice, for inspection by an inspector or by an authorised officer all such books, accounts and documents in his possession or power as may be specified or described in the notice, being books, accounts and documents which contain information as to transactions of the trade or profession.