Under the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936, anyone carrying on a business must keep business tax records for at least 5 years. Clock starts: later of preparation or the transaction.
Records that record and explain all transactions and other acts relevant to income tax: sales, purchases, receipts, invoices, bank records.
This is the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 requirement. The same records can also fall under other laws. See other terms that apply.
The terms
Conditions and exceptions Caution
From the provisions:
- Period may be extended if the Commissioner's amendment period under section 170 is extended under subsection 170(7)
- Not required if the Commissioner has notified the person that retention is not required
- Not required if the person is a company that has gone into liquidation and finally ceased to exist
- Subsection (4) does not apply to records required to be kept under a provision of Schedule 1 to the Taxation Administration Act 1953
The law
Other terms that apply to these records
This page covers business tax records on their own. The same file is often caught by other laws as well, with different periods and start dates. See why a legal term is not a schedule.
4 records. 4 sets of rules. They don't agree.
One business file can hold all of these at once.
Now do that for every record your organisation holds, and redo it when the law changes. ScheduleOne has done that work, and keeps it current.
See ScheduleOne →