How Long Should I Keep Business Records?

It is one of the questions we are asked most often: how long should a company keep its business records? For tax purposes, the short answer is at least five years.

The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) requires businesses to keep proper records and accounts of their transactions, and to be able to produce them when asked. That means retaining source documents, accounting records and schedules, bank statements, and any other records of transactions connected with the business.

Five years is a minimum, though, not an expiry date. This guide covers what IRAS expects, who becomes responsible when a company closes, and how business record keeping works when your records live in accounting software.

How Long Must Business Records Be Kept?

Under the Income Tax Act 1947, businesses are required to keep their records for at least five years. For Income Tax purposes, IRAS measures the five years from the relevant Year of Assessment (YA). GST-registered businesses are likewise required to retain their records for at least five years, measured from the end of the relevant GST accounting period.

Records must be kept up to date, and in a form that allows IRAS to verify the figures reported in your tax returns. In practice, that means they should be complete, accurate and reliable enough to support what you have declared.

What Records Should My Company Keep?

IRAS groups the requirement into three broad categories:

• Source documents that substantiate each business transaction, such as sales invoices and receipts, purchase invoices and supplier bills, vouchers, and bank statements
• Accounting records and schedules, including ledgers and journals recording assets and liabilities, income and expenses, and profits and losses
• Any other written evidence of transactions connected with the business

In practice, that usually means keeping:

• payroll records where you have employees, including evidence of CPF contributions
• tax and GST records
• documents supporting business expense claims
• records of fixed assets, to support capital allowance claims
• contracts and agreements underlying business transactions

These requirements apply regardless of how you were paid. Transactions settled through cashless services such as PayNow, Buy Now Pay Later platforms, e-commerce marketplaces and delivery platforms must be recorded just as carefully as cash or cheque payments.

IRAS also operates a set of simplified record keeping requirements that qualifying small businesses may choose to follow instead. If your business is small and not GST-registered, it is worth checking whether you qualify.

What if My Company Has Been Struck Off, Dissolved or Wound Up?

Closing a company does not end the record-keeping obligation, and this is the point most often missed.

Where a company or limited liability partnership (LLP) has been struck off, dissolved or wound up, its records must still be kept for at least five years after the date of striking off, dissolution or winding up.

Who holds them depends on how the entity ended:

• Struck off or dissolved: the person who was an officer of the company or LLP immediately before dissolution. An officer generally includes a director or company secretary, a person employed in an executive capacity, or in the case of an LLP, a manager.
• Wound up or in liquidation: the liquidator of the company or LLP, for at least five years from the date of dissolution.

This is a duty to retain and produce the records, and it rests with the relevant individual, the former officer or the liquidator, rather than with an entity that no longer exists. It does not make that person personally liable for the company’s tax or its debts. Even so, it is worth deciding who will hold the records, and where, before a closure is finalised.

What Happens if I Do Not Keep Business Records for the Required Period?

Failing to keep proper records for the required period is an offence under the Income Tax Act 1947 and the Goods and Services Tax Act 1993. If you cannot produce records when IRAS asks for them:

• IRAS may use whatever information is available to estimate your business income, instead of accepting your figures
• expense claims, capital allowance claims and GST input tax claims may be disallowed
• penalties may be imposed

Without supporting documentation, a genuine business expense may be disallowed as a deduction, which increases the amount of income assessed to tax.

Record-Keeping Requirements for GST-Registered Businesses

GST-registered businesses keep the same records as everyone else, for the same five years, plus the documents that support their GST returns. These include:

• tax invoices, simplified tax invoices and customer accounting tax invoices, both issued and received
• credit notes and debit notes, for example where goods are returned or a price is adjusted
• import documents, such as import permits, bills of lading and air waybills
• export documents, such as export permits, delivery orders, bills of lading and air waybills, where applicable
• a record of any stock or inventory taken for private consumption

The test is whether your GST records fully explain every transaction behind each figure in your GST returns.

Can Records Be Kept Electronically?

Yes. You may keep your business records electronically, including in accounting software, and you do not need IRAS approval to do so. Where source documents are properly maintained electronically, you generally do not need to keep the paper originals solely for tax purposes, although other legal or regulatory requirements may still apply. Source documents may be kept in either physical or electronic form, whichever suits your business.

What matters is the quality of what you keep. IRAS expects proper internal controls so that your electronic records stay:

• complete and accurate
• reliable, with a clear audit trail
• available and readable when IRAS asks for them
• protected against unauthorised alteration

One practical point often missed: if you switch accounting software, IRAS still expects you to retain and be able to retrieve the transactions recorded in the previous software for the full retention period, along with the related source documents, accounting records and bank statements. Exporting readable copies before you migrate is the simplest way to meet that.

Five Years Is a Minimum, Not a Deletion Deadline

Before disposing of any document, check whether another requirement still applies to it.

Practical Takeaway

Keep complete records for at least five years, keep them in a form IRAS can verify, and treat five years as a floor rather than a clear-out date. If your company is closing, decide early who will hold the records for the five years afterwards, because that duty attaches to a person once the entity is gone.

If you are unsure whether a particular document can be disposed of, keeping it is almost always cheaper than defending a disallowed claim.