Value Added Tax Act 1983

Duty to keep records

7 (1) Every taxable person shall keep such records as the Commissioners may require.

(2) The Commissioners may require any records kept in pursuance of this paragraph to be preserved for such period not exceeding three years as they may require.

(3) The duty under this paragraph to preserve records may be discharged by the preservation of the information contained therein by such means as the Commissioners may approve; and where that information is so preserved a copy of any document forming part of the records shall, subject to the following provisions of this paragraph, be admissible in evidence in any proceedings, whether civil or criminal, to the same extent as the records themselves.

(4) The Commissioners may, as a condition of approving under sub-paragraph (3) above any means of preserving information contained in any records, impose such reasonable requirements as appear to them necessary for securing that the information will be as readily available to them as if the records themselves had been preserved.

(5) A statement contained in a document produced by a computer shall not be admissible in evidence by virtue of sub-paragraph (3) above unless the conditions mentioned in subsection (2) of section 5 of the [1968 c. 64.] Civil Evidence Act 1968 or in the corresponding Scottish enactment are satisfied in relation to the statement and the computer; and the other provisions of that section and subsections (1), (2), (3) and (5) of section 6 of that Act (supplementary provisions) and the like provisions of the corresponding Scottish enactment shall, with the necessary modifications, apply in relation to the giving of evidence in pursuance of this paragraph.

(6) Notwithstanding the preceding provisions of this paragraph, in criminal proceedings the court may, for special cause, require oral evidence to be given of any matter of which evidence could ordinarily be given by means of a certificate under section 5(4) of the Civil Evidence Act 1968 or under the corresponding Scottish enactment as applied by sub-paragraph (5) above.

(7) For the purposes of this paragraph—

(a) section 13 of the [1968 c. 70.] Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1968 is the corresponding Scottish enactment to section 5 of the Civil Evidence Act 1968 and the provisions of the said section 13 (which are identical in number with the provisions of the said section 5) shall apply accordingly;

(b) section 14 of the [1968 c. 70.] Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1968 is the corresponding Scottish enactment to subsections (1), (2), (3) and (5) of section 6 of the [1968 c. 64.] Civil Evidence Act 1968.

(8) In the application of this paragraph to Northern Ireland, for references to any subsection of section 5 or 6 of the Civil Evidence Act 1968 there shall be substituted references to the same subsection of sections 2 or 3 of the [1971 c. 36 (N.I.).] Civil Evidence Act (Northern Ireland) 1971.