Section 58 — Power to access lands, buildings, books and documents

(1) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in any other enactment or law, an authorised officer of the relevant tax authority shall at all reasonable times have free access to all land, buildings, places, books and documents, in the custody or under the control of a person, public officer, or institution, for the purpose of inspecting the books or documents including those stored or maintained in computers, servers, billing systems or on digital, magnetic, optical or electronic media, and any property, process or matter which the officer considers necessary or relevant for the purpose of collecting any tax under any of the relevant enactments or law.

(2) Where the hard copies of any of the books or documents mentioned in subsection (1) of this section are not immediately available because they are stored in a computer, servers, billing system or on digital, magnetic, optical or electronic media, the relevant tax authority shall take immediate possession of such removable media and the related removable equipment or computer used to access the stored documents on the media in order to prevent the accidental or intentional destruction, removal or alteration of records and documents, especially where such may be needed as potential evidence in investigation or criminal proceedings.

(3) Where the relevant tax authority is able to obtain in place of taking physical possession of such equipment, computer or storage media under subsection (2) of this section, and the relevant tax authority possesses the ability, equipment and computer software to make exact duplicate copies of all information stored on the computer hard drive and preserve all the information exactly as it is on the original computer, the relevant tax authority shall make such copy and use it as digital evidence during investigation or criminal proceedings.

(4) The occupier of a land, building or place that is entered or proposed to be entered by an authorised officer, shall:

(a) provide the officer with all reasonable facilities and assistance for the effective exercise of powers under this section; and

(b) answer questions relating to the exercise of the powers under this section orally, or if required by the authorised officer, in writing or by statutory declaration.

(5) Notwithstanding subsection (1) of this section, the authorised officer shall not enter any private dwelling except with the consent of an occupier or pursuant to an authorisation issued under subsection (6) of this section.

(6) A judicial officer upon an application by an officer of the relevant tax authority may authorise the officer by warrant to enter into any premises.

(7) Every authorisation issued under subsection (6) of this section shall—

(a) be in the form prescribed in the Second Schedule to this Act;

(b) be directed to a named officer of the tax authority;

(c) be valid for a period of three months from the date of its issue or such lesser period as the judicial officer considers appropriate;

(d) state its period of validity, or the date on which it expires; and

(e) be renewable by the judicial officer on application.

(8) An officer exercising the power of entry conferred by an authorisation issued under subsection (6) of this section shall produce the written authorisation and evidence of identity—

(a) on first entering the private dwelling; and

(b) whenever subsequently reasonably required to do so.