Record Keeping

Record Keeping

Schedule 37 of FA08 amended existing record keeping legislation in respect of PAYE, VAT, IT, CGT and CT, whilst Schedule 50 to FA2009 extends this approach to IPT, SDLT, AGL, CCL, and LFT with BPT being included from 8 April 2010. Following consultation it was accepted that SDRT and PRT did not require separate statutory provisions, whilst IHT will be addressed through guidance.

These provisions are aimed at alignment and clarification.

This approach is designed to be flexible across a range of business and non-business taxpayers.

There are penalties for failure to keep adequate records.

The basic requirements in relation to record keeping have not changed but rules have been aligned on how long records are kept.

The updated measures include

• an HMRC power to make Regulations, where necessary, to specify additional records (for example to comply with requirements of EU law) that must, or need not, be kept
• giving HMRC the power to reduce, through regulations, the period of time that records must be kept, where this did not exist already.

HMRC has not used any of these powers that it received in either FA08 or FA09 so far. What records must be kept and the time limits for keeping them have not changed.