ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS RULES

ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS

SUBSIDIARY LEGISLATION 517.02

ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS RULES

16th August, 2016

LEGAL NOTICE 284 of 2016.

The title of these rules is the Electronic Communications

Rules.

In these rules, unless the context otherwise requires -

"guidelines" means guidelines published by the Commissioner

for the purpose of these rules on the official website of a revenue

department;

"statutory document" means a return, notice, declaration,

statement or any other communication or form, whether prescribed

or not, that may be furnished or is required to be furnished to the

Commissioner in terms of any law;

and other terms and expressions have the same meaning as that

assigned to them in the Act or in the relative revenue Act.

(1) The Commissioner may, by means of guidelines,

establish procedures for the electronic submission of any statutory

documents, including the electronic format of any such documents,

and for related electronic communications.

(2) Guidelines may be made in one or more sets and published

on the official website of one or more revenue departments, and

different sets may be published on the official websites of different

revenue departments.

(3) The Commissioner may, in the same manner, at any time

change or suspend in full or in part the procedures established in

the guidelines.

Subject to the provisions of rule 6, any time limit laid

down in a revenue Act for the submission of a statutory document

is also the time limit within which that document may be submitted

electronically

Provided that the Commissioner may, by means of

guidelines, allow a time limit for the electronic submission of a

statutory document that is longer than the corresponding time limit

laid down in the relative revenue Act.

Subject to the provisions of rule 6, and except as may be

otherwise provided in guidelines

(a) when a person submits the electronic format of a

statutory document electronically in accordance with

the procedures set out in guidelines and within the

time limit that is applicable in accordance with rule 4,

he shall be deemed to have validly submitted that

statutory document for the purpose of the relative

ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS

revenue Act;

(b) the valid submission of the electronic format of a

statutory document shall relieve that person from the

obligation to submit any statement or other document

that is otherwise required by the relative revenue Act

to be submitted together with the paper format of that

document.

When the electronic format of a statutory document has

been submitted by or on behalf of any person, the Commissioner

may request that person to submit, within a period of not less than

forty-eight hours but in any case by a date that is not earlier than

the last day of the period allowed by the relative revenue Act for

the submission of the paper format of that document -

(a) the paper format of that document;

(b) any statement or other document that is required by the

relative revenue Act to be submitted together with the

paper format of that document;

(c) any information that is required in terms of the relative

revenue Act to be included in the paper format of that

document or in any such attachment;

and that statutory document shall not be deemed to have been

validly submitted unless and until such request is complied with.

When a person has communicated electronically with the

Commissioner on any matter using the procedures established for

the purpose of these rules, the Commissioner may communicate

with that person electronically in connection with that matter, and

any such communication by the Commissioner shall be deemed to

have been validly made for the purposes of the relative revenue

Act.

When a person authorises another person to communicate

with the Commissioner on his behalf in accordance with procedures

established for the purpose of these rules and that authorisation has

not been revoked -

(a) any electronic communication made by the authorised

person in accordance with those procedures shall be

deemed, for the purposes of the relative revenue Act,

to be a communication made by the person who gave

that authorisation; and

(b) any communication made by the Commissioner with

the authorised person in accordance with rule 7 shall

be deemed, for the purpose of the relative revenue Act,

to be a communication with the person who gave that

authorisation.

Nothing in these rules shall be construed as empowering

the Commissioner

(a) to impose a time limit for the submission of the

electronic format of a statutory document that is

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shorter than that provided for in the relative law for the

submission of that statutory document;

(b) to require a person to provide information that he is

not required to provide in terms of any revenue Act or

any other law except as may be reasonably necessary

for the management and the security of the electronic

communication system.

Nothing in these rules or in guidelines shall be construed as

validating or invalidating any electronic communication that is

outside the scope of those guidelines.

The data recorded on the system used or recognised by the

Commissioner for the purpose of electronic communications to

which these rules refer shall constitute conclusive evidence as to

(a) the identity of the sender of that communication;

(b) the identity of the receiver of that communication;

(c) the contents of that communication;

(d) the delivery of the communication;

(e) the date and

time

of

the

delivery

of

the

communication

Provided that this rule shall not apply when it is proved

that, on account of any technical default in the said system, the

relevant data is not retrievable or is incomplete or is not reliable.