Lee Sharpe looks at taxpayers’ record-keeping obligations in light of HMRC’s inexorable march to digital everything (almost).
Historically, HMRC has been quite relaxed about whether original records must be maintained or digital facsimiles (scans, etc.). For instance, the 2013 ‘General Guide to Keeping Records for Your Tax Return’ states:
‘You can keep most records on a computer or use any storage device such as CD-ROM, USB memory stick or a network drive. You may not need to keep the original paper records as long as the method you use captures all the information (front and back) on the document and allows you to present the information to us in a readable format, if requested.’
NB You can tell this guidance is now more than a decade old, because it makes no mention of storing records ‘in the cloud’.
In terms of records required to be kept for
