Finance Act, 1992
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Inspection of computer documents and records. |
237.—(1) In this section— | |
“the Acts” means— | ||
(a) the Customs Acts, | ||
(b) the statutes relating to the duties of excise and to the management of those duties, | ||
(c) the Tax Acts, | ||
(d) the Capital Gains Tax Acts, | ||
(e) the Value-Added Tax Act, 1972 , and the enactments amending or extending that Act, | ||
(f) the Capital Acquisitions Tax Act, 1976 , and the enactments amending or extending that Act, and | ||
(g) Part VI of the Finance Act, 1983 , | ||
and any instruments made thereunder; | ||
“data” means information in a form in which it can be processed; | ||
“data equipment” means any electronic, photographic, magnetic, optical or other equipment for processing data; | ||
“processing” means performing automatically logical or arithmetical operations on data, or the storing, maintenance, transmission, reproduction or communication of data; | ||
“records” means documents which a person is obliged by any provision of the Acts to keep, to issue or to produce for inspection, and any other written or printed material; | ||
“software” means any sequence of instructions used in conjunction with data equipment for the purpose of processing data or controlling the operation of the data equipment. | ||
(2) Any provision under the Acts which— | ||
(a) requires a person to keep, retain, issue or produce any records or cause any records to be kept, retained, issued or produced, or | ||
(b) permits an officer of the Revenue Commissioners— | ||
(i) to inspect any records, | ||
(ii) to enter premises and search for any records, or | ||
(iii) to take extracts from or copies of or remove any records, | ||
shall, where the records are processed by data equipment, apply to the data equipment together with any associated software, data, apparatus or material as it applies to the records. | ||
(3) An officer of the Revenue Commissioners may, in the exercise or performance of his powers or duties, require— | ||
(a) the person by or on whose behalf the data equipment is or has been used, or | ||
(b) any person having charge of, or otherwise concerned with the operation of, the data equipment or any associated apparatus or material, | ||
to afford him all reasonable assistance in relation thereto. |