Document and Records Retention
Records need to be retained not only for the purposes of business use, but also to meet legal and regulatory obligations. For example, In the UK, The Companies Act 1985 (Section 221) requires companies to keep accounting records sufficient to give a "true and fair view of the state of the company's affairs and to explain its transactions." It also requires adequate precautions be taken against falsification of records and to discover any falsification that occurs. Both the Inland Revenue and HM Customs & Excise provide guidance on record-keeping for income, capital gains, corporation and value added tax. In general, they stress the need for businesses to record all transactions and keep all documents relating to them, such as receipts, invoices and bank statements; there are statutory bookkeeping requirements for businesses to keep financial records, and to keep them for particular lengths of time. Business records for the Inland Revenue tax returns must be kept for at least five years from the latest date for sending a tax return. VAT-registered businesses need to keep business records for HM Customs & Excise for six years
