960LRecovery by sheriff or county registrar.

(1) Where any person does not pay any sum in respect of tax for which he or she is liable under the Acts, the Collector-General may issue a certificate to the county registrar or sheriff of the county in which the person resides or has a place of business certifying the amount due and outstanding and the person from whom that amount is payable.

(2) (a) For the purposes of this subsection—

“electronic” has the meaning assigned to it by the Electronic Commerce Act 2000 and an “electronic certificate” shall be construed accordingly;

“issued in non-paper format” includes issued in facsimile.

(b) A certificate to be issued by the Collector-General under this section may—

(i) be issued in an electronic or other format, and

(ii) where the certificate is issued in a non-paper format, be reproduced in a paper format by the county registrar or sheriff or by persons authorised by the county registrar or sheriff to do so.

(c) A certificate issued in a non-paper format in accordance with paragraph (b) shall—

(i) constitute a valid certificate for the purposes of this section,

(ii) be deemed to have been made by the Collector-General, and

(iii) be deemed to have been issued on the date that the Collector-General caused the certificate to issue.

(d) (i) Where a certificate issued by the Collector-General is reproduced in a non-paper format in accordance with paragraph (b)(ii) and—

(I) the reproduction contains, or there is appended to it, a note to the effect that it is a copy of the certificate so issued, and

(II) the note contains the signature of the county registrar or sheriff or of the person authorised under paragraph (b)(ii) and the date of such signing,

then the copy of the certificate with the note so signed and dated shall, for all purposes, have effect as if it was the certificate itself.

(ii) A signature or date in a note, on a copy of, or appended to, a certificate issued in a non-paper format by the Collector-General, and reproduced in a paper format in accordance with paragraph (b)(ii), that—

(I) in respect of such signature, purports to be that of the county registrar or sheriff or of a person authorised to make a copy, shall be taken until the contrary is shown to be the signature of the county registrar or sheriff or of a person who at the material time was so authorised, and

(II) in respect of such date, shall be taken until the contrary is shown to have been duly dated.

(3) (a) Immediately on receipt of the certificate, the county registrar or sheriff shall proceed to levy the amount certified in the certificate to be in default by seizing all or any of the goods, animals or other chattels within his or her area of responsibility belonging to the defaulter.

(b) For the purposes of paragraph (a), the county registrar or sheriff shall (in addition to the rights, powers and duties conferred on him or her by this section) have all such rights, powers and duties as are for the time being vested in him or her by law in relation to the execution of a writ of fieri facias in so far as those rights, powers and duties are not inconsistent with the additional rights, powers and duties conferred on him or her by this section.

(4) A county registrar or sheriff executing a certificate under this section shall be entitled—

(a) if the sum certified in the certificate is in excess of €19,050, to charge and (where appropriate) to add to that sum and (in any case) to levy under the certificate such fees and expenses, calculated in accordance to the scales appointed by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform under section 14(1)(a) of the Enforcement of Court Orders Act 1926 and for the time being in force, as the county registrar or sheriff would be entitled so to charge or add and to levy if the certificate were an execution order, within the meaning of the Enforcement of Court Orders Act 1926 (in this section referred to as an “execution order”), of the High Court,

(b) if the sum referred to in the certificate to be in default exceeds €3,175 but does not exceed €19,050, to charge and (where appropriate) to add to that sum and (in any case) to levy under the certificate such fees and expenses, calculated according to the scales referred to in paragraph (a), as the county registrar or sheriff would be entitled so to charge or add and to levy if the certificate were an execution order of the Circuit Court, and

(c) if the sum certified in the certificate to be in default does not exceed €3,175 and (where appropriate) to add to that sum and (in any case) to levy under the certificate such fees and expenses, calculated according to the scales referred to in paragraph (a), as the county registrar or sheriff would be entitled so to charge or add and to levy if the certificate were an execution order of the District Court.