It's important you keep accurate and complete records of your income and expenses for 7 years.
Records of income
You should keep these records of your income and expenses:
- tax invoices – everybody keeps these. It's important to keep them if you're registered for GST and you’re invoicing a customer, client or another GST registered person
- other invoices
- credit card sales – you’ll need to keep all copies of the vouchers and voucher schedules
- debit notes – if you're registered for GST and the price of your goods or services goes up after you issue your original tax invoice, you must provide clearly marked debit notes to your customers
- credit notes – if you're registered for GST and the price of your goods or services drops after you issue your original tax invoice, you must provide clearly marked credit notes to your customers
- cash register tape – you’ll need to keep this if your business makes a lot of cash sales and does not have to issue tax invoices for each sale. Record all cash sales on the tape.
Records of expenses
Records of expenses should include:
- tax invoices for purchases of more than $50 if you want to claim these in your GST return. You must get them when you buy goods or services for a business
- evidence of payment, for example invoices, cash sale dockets and till receipts
- evidence of credit card purchases, including credit card vouchers, payment receipts and monthly statements. Also keep the invoice issued at the time of purchase.
