Finance Act, 1986

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Use of electronic data processing.

113.—(1) In this section—

“the Acts” means—

(a) the Tax Acts,

(b) the Capital Gains Tax Acts,

(c) section 24 of the Value-Added Tax Act, 1972 ,

(d) the Capital Acquisitions Tax Act, 1976 , and the enactments amending or extending that Act, and

(e) Part VI of the Finance Act, 1983 ,

and any instruments made thereunder;

“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;

“tax” means income tax, corporation tax, capital gains tax, value-added tax or residential property tax, as the case may be.

(2) Subject to the agreement of the Revenue Commissioners, records may be stored, maintained, transmitted, reproduced or communicated, as the case may be, by any electronic, photographic or other process approved of by the Revenue Commissioners, and in circumstances where the use of such process has been agreed by them and subject to such conditions as they may impose.

(3) Where, in pursuance of subsection (2), records are preserved by electronic, photographic or other process, a statement contained in a document produced by any such process shall, subject to the rules of court, be admissible in evidence in any proceedings, whether civil or criminal, to the same extent as the records themselves.

(4) Notwithstanding anything in the Tax Acts, duplicates of assessments need not be made, transmitted or delivered.

(5) The entering by an inspector or other authorised officer of details of an assessment and the tax charged therein in an electronic, photographic or other record from which the Collector-General may extract such details by electronic, photographic or other process shall constitute transmission of such details by the inspector or other authorised officer to the Collector-General.

(6) In any proceedings in the Circuit Court, the District Court or the High Court for or in relation to the recovery of any tax, a certificate signed by the Collector-General or other authorised officer certifying that, before the institution of proceedings, a stated sum of tax as so transmitted became due and payable by the defendant—

(a) (i) under an assessment which had become final and conclusive,

(ii) under the provisions of section 429 (4) (inserted by the Finance Act, 1971) of the Income Tax Act, 1967 , or

(iii) under the provisions relating to the specified amount of tax within the meaning of section 30 of the Finance Act, 1976 ,

and

(b) that demand for the payment of the tax has been duly made,

shall be prima facie evidence, until the contrary has been proved, of those facts and a certificate certifying as aforesaid and purporting to be signed by the Collector-General or other authorised officer may be tendered in evidence without proof and shall be deemed, until the contrary is proved, to have been signed by the Collector-General or other authorised officer.