Record keeping

Your business records must contain enough information for you to be able to accurately calculate and substantiate the income you report in your tax return.

Information your records need to show for your business's assessable income

Examples of types of records

Gross sales and income from your business received in cash, online, using credit or debit cards or using EFTPOS.

Other money received such as:

Other business transactions involving bartering or trade exchanges are subject to the same income tax and GST treatment as normal cash or credit transactions.

If you use cash register tapes, keep the full rolls of tape for:

How long to keep tax return records

The records of the information you use to complete your tax return need to be kept for 5 years, starting from when you prepared or obtained the records, or when you completed the transactions the records relate to, whichever is later.

You should keep records long enough to cover the period of review (also known as the amendment period) for an assessment that uses information from the record.