Section 524 — Presumption as to assets, books of account, etc. Successor to s.292C of the 1961 Act.
Section 524 is in Chapter XXIII — Miscellaneous, which runs from section 499 to section 536.
Sub-section (1) applies where books of account, other documents, money, bullion, jewellery, virtual digital asset or other valuable article or thing, or any information in electronic form as defined in section 261(g) or on a computer system as defined in section 261(e), or any computer system containing that information, is found in the possession or control of any person in the course of a search under section 247 or a survey under section 253. In any proceeding under the Act it may then be presumed: that the material belongs to that person (clause (a)); that its contents are true (clause (b)); that a signature or handwriting purporting to be, or reasonably assumed to be, a particular person's is his (clause (c)); that a document stamped, executed or attested was duly stamped and executed or attested by the person by whom it purports to have been (clause (d)); and that an exchange of information in electronic form or on the computer system purported to be between parties was exchanged between them (clause (e)).
Sub-section (2) extends those presumptions to books, documents or assets delivered to the requisitioning officer under section 248, as if they had been found in the possession or control of the person referred to in section 248(1)(a), (b) or (c) in the course of a search under section 247.
Material seized in a search or noted in a survey is usually in the hands of the person it incriminates, and requiring the Department to prove ownership, authorship and truth of each document from scratch would make it unusable. The section supplies presumptions that let seized material be acted on unless displaced, and extends them to electronic records and computer systems. Sub-section (2) closes the gap for material that reaches the Department by requisition rather than by search.
The presumptions are permissive and rebuttable — the words are "may ... Be presumed" — but until displaced, the material and its contents stand against the person from whose possession or control it came. Their reach is wider than a search: sub-section (1) covers a survey under section 253 too, and sub-section (2) brings in material delivered on a requisition under section 248. Electronic material is expressly inside the section, and clause (e) presumes that messages purporting to be exchanged between parties were in fact exchanged between them. Nothing confines the presumptions to the proceeding in which the material was found — they are available in any proceeding under the Act.
During a search a diary and a laptop are found at an individual's premises. It may be presumed that both belong to him and that their contents are true, and under clause (e) that messages on the laptop purporting to be between him and a counterparty were in fact exchanged between them. He may lead evidence to displace any of this, but until he does, the entries can be acted on in his assessment and in any other proceeding under the Act.
In the assessment or penalty proceeding that follows a search under section 247 or a survey under section 253, where the seized or impounded material is used against the person from whose possession or control it came. This is the section relied on when an order treats a loose sheet, a diary entry or a file on a device as belonging to him and as true.
it may, in any proceeding under this Act, be presumed
that the contents of such books of account and other documents or such information or computer system are true
See the full 1961 to 2025 concordance.
