Section 126A: Power to access computers and other electronic devices

126A. Power to access computers and other electronic devices (1) For the purpose of ascertaining the tax liability of any person under this Act, the Director-General may, subject to subsection (2), at any reasonable time— (a) have access to— (i) any computer, computer software, whether installed in the computer or otherwise, electronic till or any other device, used in connection with any document which the person is required to produce for the purpose of ascertaining his tax liability; (ii) any information, code or technology which has the capability of retransforming or unscrambling encrypted data contained or available to such computers or devices into readable and comprehensive format or text; I5 – 79 [Issue 8] Income Tax Act (b) inspect and check the operation of any such computer, electronic till or other device and make extracts of any computer software, computer output or such other document used in connection therewith; (c) require any person by whom or on whose behalf the computer or other electronic device is operated, or any person concerned with the operation of the equipment, to give such assistance as is necessary for the purpose of this section; (d) require any person in possession of decryption information to grant him access to such decryption information necessary to decrypt data required for the purposes of this section. (2) Subsection (1) shall not apply to any banking business regulated by the Banking Act. [S. 126A inserted by s. 11 (q) of Act 28 of 2004 w.e.f. 26 August 2004.]