We are regularly asked the question of how long people should keep their tax and financial records.
The answer is not exact and will depend upon your circumstances and whether we are talking about personal tax records or business tax records.
Personal Tax Records and Self Assessment
Self Assessment is a voluntary disclosure of your assets and income for tax. Many people do not need to file tax returns as they are employees, so income taxes are collected through payroll, tax relief on pensions is granted at source or via ‘net pay’ arrangement deductions of contributions from your gross pay before tax. In addition, interest from savings will usually be within the tax-free savings allowance, dividends will usually be within the tax-free dividend allowance and other savings in tax free ISAs and tax deferred investment bonds. That said, you may need to complete self assessment tax returns if:
HMRC may ‘pull’ your file at random to check your accuracy. If you have no kept accurate records, you may get into difficulty.
HMRC also has no time limit as to when they may investigate you or if you have made an error with your submission. We can also take a guide from HMRC’s own precedents:
Our guidance therefore is to keep your tax and financial history indefinitely.
Tax Records for Business
HMRC has issued guidance that:
Our guidance is still to keep your tax and business records indefinitely.
ESSENTIAL COOKIES ONLY - WE DO NOT TRACK YOU
WE DON'T LIKE BEING TRACKED SO WHY WOULD WE 'SPY' ON YOU?
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