Taxpayers to keep documents for 10 years

MAKATI CITY, Philippines - Dec. 9, 2015 - PRLog -- Recent BIR Requirement: Taxpayers to keep books for 10 years.

As of 2013, The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) in the Philippines requires that taxpayers keep their books of accounts and accounting records for a period of 10 years, instead of the much shorter three years it used to be before.

The move aims to ensure that the correct revenues are timely and completely reported, and only the deductions authorized by law are properly claimed in returns supported by accounting entries in the books of accounts, and by contracts, invoices and receipts.

The main reason for requiring the books of accounts to be kept, is to ensure that all taxes due to the government may be readily and accurately ascertained and determined any time of the year.

The BIR said that a taxpayer’s accounting records are needed beyond the three-year period of limitation of assessment if he or she is under investigation for any fraud or omission in the returns.

If there is a pending tax case or claim for tax credit/refund of taxes, then the books and records should be kept until the case is resolved.

Aside from this, the BIR said it may conduct periodic audits into the books and records of tax exempt organizations or grantees of tax incentives to determine their compliance with the conditions under which they have been granted tax exemption.

All corporations, companies, partnerships or persons required by law to pay internal revenue taxes are required to keep all their books of accounts including the subsidiary books and accounting records for a period of at least 10 years from the date of the last entry in each book, and shall be subject to examination at any time by internal revenue officers.

All books, registers, other records other supporting papers required by the BIR have to be kept at all times at the place of business of the taxpayer. These papers must immediately be produced and submitted for inspection if requested by the government.

This clearly demonstrates how vitally important and beneficial it is to have all of your tax documents backed up and safely secured electronically with a document management system and DMS software. It also helps to free up valuable office space, which not only gives you more office space, but also saves the company or organization a lot of money.