Rule 153 — Distraint and sale.
The rule tells an officer how to carry out a distraint. Where any distraint and sale of movable property are to be effected by an Assessing Officer or a Tax Recovery Officer authorised for the purpose, the distraint and sale shall be made, as far as may be, in the same manner as attachment and sale of any movable property attachable by actual seizure, and the provisions of rule 225 relating to attachment and sale shall, so far as may be, apply in respect of that distraint and sale. The rule prescribes no separate procedure of its own; it borrows one.
Distraint and attachment are different powers but the physical acts are the same — seizing goods, keeping them and selling them. Rather than write a second procedure for distraint, the rule points at the attachment and sale machinery in rule 225 and applies it so far as may be. That way a taxpayer whose goods are distrained gets the same safeguards as one whose goods are attached.
The rule is a borrowing provision, so the working detail of a distraint is found in rule 225 and not here. Both qualifications matter: the manner follows attachment and sale "as far as may be", and rule 225 applies "so far as may be", so the attachment procedure is carried across only to the extent it can sensibly operate on a distraint. The comparator is narrow — movable property attachable by actual seizure — so the model is physical seizure rather than the forms of attachment that work by prohibitory order. The power itself and the officer's authorisation come from elsewhere; this rule assumes both and governs only how the seizure and sale are conducted.
A Tax Recovery Officer authorised for the purpose distrains stock lying at a firm's premises. The seizure, custody, and the eventual sale of that stock follow the steps rule 225 lays down for attachment and sale of movable property attachable by actual seizure, applied so far as they can be. A step in rule 225 that has no counterpart in a distraint is not carried across, because both limbs of rule 153 are qualified.
You meet it in a recovery proceeding, at the point where an officer arrives to seize movable property and in the sale papers that follow; the taxpayer sees the rule 225 steps rather than this rule.
such distraint and sale shall be made, as far as may be, in the same manner as attachment and sale of any movable property attachable by actual seizure
the provisions of rule 225 relating to attachment and sale shall, so far as may be, apply in respect of such distraint and sale