Section 23: Powers of Inspection and Audit

1) A Tax Officer may examine whether there is reasonable ground to believe that a taxpayer required to be registered under this Act has been involved in a taxable transaction without being registered.

2) In order to examine pursuant to Sub-section (1), verify the tax return submitted by a registered person under Section 18 and assess the tax under Section 20, a tax officer shall have the following powers:

(a) To inspect all goods, premises, documents, records and accounts relating to the liability for tax;

(b) To search the place of transaction of the taxpayer or other places where the evidence related to an offence under this Act may be found.

(c) To require, in pursuance of discharging his/her duty, information from a person who prepares any records, books, ledger or other (documents or makes entry therein;

(d) To take on possession of, remove and transfer any documents, books and records from the taxpayer’s transaction place and other transaction places related thereto; and

(e) To perform audits at the taxpayer’s place of transaction, in the Tax Office, or at any other appropriate place.

3) If a Tax Officer requests any person, including a bank or financial institution for access to any information about taxpayer’s transactions, it shall be the duty of such person to furnish such information to the Tax Officer.