Page 537 - Juta's Indirect Tax

Electronic records TAX ADMINISTRATION ACT: REGULATIONS AND NOTICES Electronic records REGULATIONS AND NOTICES
ELECTRONIC FORM OF RECORD KEEPING IN TERMS OF SECTION 30 (1) (b) OF THE ACT
Promulgated under
GN 787 in GG 35733 of 1 October 2012
In terms of section 30(1)(b) of the Tax Administration Act, 2011, I, George Ngakane Virgil Magashula, Commissioner for the South African Revenue Service, hereby prescribe, in the Schedule hereto, the electronic form in which records, books of account and documents that are required to be kept or retained in terms of section 29 of the Tax Administration Act, 2011, must be held.
(Signed)
G N V MAGASHULA
COMMISSIONER FOR THE SOUTH AFRICAN REVENUE SERVICE
SCHEDULE
1 General
1.1 Any word or expression contained in this notice to which a meaning has been assigned in a tax Act as de ned in section 1 of the Tax Administration Act, 2011 (Act 28 of 2011) (‘the Act’) has the meaning so assigned, unless the context indicates otherwise.
1.2 In this notice, the following terms, if in single quotation marks, have the following meanings—
‘an acceptable electronic form’ has the meaning contained in rule 3.2;
‘the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act’ means the Electronic Communications and
Transactions Act, 2002 (Act 25 of 2002);
‘electronic records’ means ‘records’ that are kept or stored in electronic form on a computer or on another
electronic storage device and are either originally created in an electronic form or are converted from any non- electronic form into an electronic form; and
‘records’ mean the records, books of account or documents that a person is required to keep or retain in terms of section 29 of the Act.
2 Authority to keep records in electronic form
A person who is required to keep ‘records’ in terms of section 29 of the Act may keep those ‘records’, or part of those ‘records’, in an electronic form as provided in the rules set out in this notice.
3 Acceptable electronic form
3.1 In addition to the other requirements contained in these Rules, the ‘electronic records’ must be kept in an ‘acceptable electronic form’.
3.2 An ‘acceptable electronic form’ is a form in which—
(a) the integrity of the electronic record satis es the standard contained in section 14 of the Electronic
Communications and Transactions Act;
(b) the person required to keep ‘records’ are [soc] able to, within a reasonable period when required by SARS—
(i) provide SARS with an electronic copy of the ‘records’ in a format that SARS is able to readily access, read and correctly analyse;
(ii) send the ‘records’ to SARS in an electronic form that is readily accessible by SARS; or (iii) provide SARS with a paper copy of the ‘records’; and
(c) the ‘records’ kept in an electronic form may be accessed by SARS for the purpose of performing a function referred to in section 3 of the Act.
4 Location of records
4.1 ‘Records’ retained in an electronic form must be kept and maintained at a place physically located in South Africa.
4.2 A senior SARS of cial may authorise a person to keep ‘records’ in an electronic form at a location outside
South Africa if the of cial is satis ed that—
(a) the electronic system used by the person will be accessible from the person’s physical address in South
Africa for the duration of the period that the person is obliged to keep and retain ‘records’;
(b) the locality where the ‘records’ are proposed to be kept will not affect access to the electronic records;
(c) there is an international tax agreement for reciprocal assistance in the administration of taxes in place
between South Africa and the country in which the person proposes to keep the electronic ‘records’;
(d) the form in which the ‘records’ are maintained satis es all the requirements of these Rules apart from the
issue of physical locality of the storage; and
(e) the person will be able to provide an ‘acceptable electronic form’ of the ‘records’ to SARS on request
within a reasonable period.
5 System documentation explanation
5.1 A person who uses computer software or an electronic platform that is commonly recognised in South Africa, to keep ‘records’ in an electronic form, need not keep the documentation described in this rule.
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