Section 231.5

In the course of an audit, a taxpayer carrying on a business refused to hand over diskettes containing text files of accounting data to the auditors, and also refused to allow the auditors to make electronic copies of those diskettes. The Directorate stated:

[U]nder the terms of subsection 231.5(1) … where, pursuant to sections 231.1 and 231.2, electronic records (such electronic records being "records" within the meaning of the definition of "record" in section 231 and the definition of "record" in subsection 248(1)) are being audited or reviewed or produced, the person who is doing the auditing or reviewing, or to whom the production is made, or any CCRA official, may make or cause to be made electronic copies of them.

Note that subsection 231.5(1) also allows that person or official to print out or cause to be printed out such electronic documents. Documents submitted as documents that the Minister or an authorized person certifies to be printouts of electronic documents, made in accordance with section 231.5, are then evidence of the nature and content of the original documents and have the same evidentiary force as the original documents would have if their authenticity were proven in the usual way. Such printouts of electronic documents would therefore, if necessary, be admissible as evidence in court. This right to obtain printouts of electronic documents in no way limits or prevents a CCRA official from making or causing to be made electronic copies of a taxpayer's electronic documents.