Record keeping
Schedule 37 of FA08 amends existing record keeping legislation in respect of PAYE, VAT, Income Tax, Capital Gains Tax and Corporation Tax and is aimed at alignment and clarification.
This approach is designed to be flexible across a range of business and non-business taxpayers.
For PAYE, employers are required to keep specified records.
For VAT, Income Tax, Capital Gains Tax and Corproation Tax the requirement is for taxable persons to keep adequate business and accounting records.
Adequate does not mean excessive or prescriptive - it means keeping records to be sure that the right profit, loss, tax declaration or claim is made.
There are penalties for failure to keep appropriate records.
One of the key elements in the new framework is the ability to inspect records before a return is submitted if such inspection is reasonably required to check a tax position.
