Powers of Commissioner General to have
access
This week we continue with a discussion
on the powers of the Commissioner General to have access to any
information for the purposes of calculating a taxpayers’ liability on
a particular income.
As a taxpayer, you need to be aware of what it is that you would be
required to provide in terms of information to assist the Internal
Revenue Commission on its assessment of your tax liability.
You also need to be aware of the limitations placed by our tax laws on
the Commissioner General in exercising his powers to access such
information.
Our tax laws provide that the Commissioner General, or any officer
authorised by him for that purpose, shall at all times have full and
free access to all buildings, places, computers, books, documents,
records, papers and other information storage devices, and may seize,
retain and remove for inspection or make extracts from or copies of
any such computer, book, documentary or paper records.
These powers are very broad and confer a right on the Commissioner
General which is unrestricted except that such a right is to be
exercised in good faith and only for the purpose of obtaining
information that is directly relevant to establish a taxpayers true
tax liability.
The Internal Revenue Commission and its officers cannot go on a
fishing expedition. They can obtain wide ranging information relevant
only to determine a taxpayer’s taxable income.
The concept of “full access” really means IRC officers can gain and
have access to all parts of any building or place in which you conduct
your business or keep records of your business and obtain any business
documents and other papers you may have.
The only exception would relate documents where you would claim
privilege on the whole
or parts of it.
This aspect will be discussed in a future article.
“Free” means there should not be any physical obstruction.
You cannot either by yourself or through your employees and or agents
prevent any officer of the IRC (if he is properly authorised) from
gaining entry to your business premises and have access to any
documents you may have.
Documents or parts of the document kept by you may be removed from
you.
When you are next visited by an officer from the IRC, the first thing
you do is ask the officer if he is properly authorised to be on your
premises.
Usually IRC officers will produce an identification card which
authorises them to be on your premises.
It is not necessary for the authority to specify the premises to be
entered or the type of the documents sought.
In most cases, they will give you advance notice if they intend to
visit your office or business premises to do field audits.
IRC officers are not entitled to remain at your office or place of
business if they fail to produce any proof of written authority signed
by the Commissioner General.
You are not obliged to take any direction from them.
The access powers given to the IRC and its officers must be exercised
with due regard to the position and rights of those affected by it.
These powers cannot be abused such as gaining unfair advantage over
taxpayers.
Our tax laws also require persons who are occupiers of any building or
place entered or proposed to be entered to provide the IRC officers
all reasonable facilities and assistance for them to exercise their
powers effectively.
The term “occupier” is not defined but would include employees and
other persons who have had physical presence at a particular place for
a considerable period of time.
They are required to identify the location of documents and other
relevant items, open locked storage facilities or provide means to do
so, provide adequate lighting and power, and provide working space
appropriate facilities such as photocopying.
However, they cannot provide assistance on matters unrelated to
“access” and are not required to answer questions about a taxpayer’s
general tax affairs.
You might be in a situation where you would be required to provide
reasonable facilities and assistance.
You need to be aware of these if you are a taxpayer.
by MARK OPUR
