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Income Tax Recordkeeping requirements
Income and Expense records:
  • sales and expense invoices and receipts

  • cash register tapes

  • credit card statements

  • bank deposit books and cheque butts, and

  • bank account statements.
Income and Expense records:
 
Sales and expense receipts and invoices could show :
  • name of the supplier

  • Australian business number (ABN) of the supplier

  • amount of the sale or expense

  • nature of the goods or services sold or purchased

  • date of sale or date expense was incurred, and

  • date of the document.

Year end tax records:

Motor vehicle expenses

Stocktake records

Records of depreciating assets

Small business concessions

Income Tax Records
Businesses are required by the Australian Taxation Office to keep records of all transactions that relate to their tax affairs.

Subsection 262A(2) of the ITA 1936 prescribes the records to be kept as including:
  • any documents that are relevant for the purpose of ascertaining the person’s income or expenditure

  • documents containing particulars of any election, estimate, determination or calculation made by the person for taxation purposes and, in the case of an estimate, determination or calculation, particulars showing the basis on which and the method by which the estimate, determination or calculation was made.
Business entities must keep all relevant records for five years.

Keep records in writing and in English; however, they can be kept in an electronic form, or on microfiche as long as the records are in a form that can be accessed and understood to ascertain taxation liability – see Taxation Ruling TR 2005/9 – Income tax: record keeping – electronic records and section 262A.

Private use component

  If you use any business purchases for private use, you must have records that show how you calculated any private use component.



Year end tax records:

Debtors and creditors lists

Filing

Records relating to assets for capital gains tax purposes

Assets register