Aircraft operators are required to retain all records and
supporting documents for a period of 6 years. Failure to keep or
present accounts and records to us will render the aircraft
operator liable to a penalty (see
APD5400) The APD account must be retained
for a minimum of 6 years. However, if an airline requests that
supplementary records be destroyed at an earlier date, you should
ensure that an assurance visit has been carried out for the period
for which the records are to be destroyed. Dependent on the
assurance gained from the visit you can agree that those records
can be destroyed. An agreement will also need to be made at this
time on the retention period for future records.
All decisions and future agreements should be notified to the
trader in writing and a copy of the letter retained in the
traders’ file.
These records must normally be retained for six years but you
may reduce this in individual cases at your discretion. The period
of retention should be agreed as part of the special scheme.
It may not be possible for the trader to retain all coupons
used in the sample or the calculation of the scheme - in which case
the accuracy of the sample will have to be checked during the
sampling period, while all the coupons are still available.
