Print Options

(1) A person shall maintain, within the country, necessary records

(a) to provide information in respect of documents to be filed with the Commissioner-General under a tax law;

(b) to enable an accurate determination of tax payable under a tax law; and

(c) that may be prescribed by Regulations or by the Commissioner-General.

(2) For the purpose of subsection (1), necessary records include underlying documents, however described in the nature of receipts, invoices, vouchers, contracts or in the case of electronic records, any medium by which the information can be extracted.

(3) A document referred to in subsection (1) shall be retained for a period of at least six years from the relevant date or for the following period whichever is longer:

(a) where a person objects to a tax decision or appeals against a tax decision, a document relevant to the matter in dispute shall be retained until the matter is decided and the decision executed;

(b) where a person makes an application to the Commissioner-General, a document relevant to the application shall be retained until the application is determined;

(c) where a person seeks a refund of tax, a document relevant to calculation of the refund shall be retained until the refund is made; and

(d) where a person has received notice of an investigation by the Commissioner-General, a document relevant to the investigation shall be retained until the Commissioner-General notifies the person in writing that the investigation is completed.

(3) Despite subsections (1) and (2), the Commissioner-General may, by service of a notice in writing

(a) relieve a person of the obligation to maintain documents or the time for which they are to be retained but only to the extent specified in the notice; or

(b) require a person to retain documents described with reasonable certainty in the notice for a period specified in the notice.

(4) Subsection (3) (b) applies whether or not the documents pertain to the tax affairs of that person.

(5) In this section, “relevant date” in relation to a document means

(a) in the case of income tax, the end of the year of assessment or years of assessment for which the document is relevant;

(b) in the case of value added tax, the end of the accounting period or periods for which the document is relevant; and

(c) in the case of other taxes, the last date on which the taxpayer is obliged to file a tax return or other document with the Commissioner-General for which the document is relevant.