Record Keeping and Retention
Statutory Basis: VAT Act §26, §50
What statute says
Value Added Tax Act, 2014, s. 26 sets the minimum record-keeping period, and Value Added Tax Act, 2014, s. 50 governs retention beyond the record-keeping period (including for cancelled or closed accounts). The combined effect is a minimum 7-year retention for all VAT-relevant records, reinforced by Value Added Tax Act, 2014, s. 41(3) (record-keeping requirements and good-faith reliance).
Records must remain accessible and complete enough for inspection. Retention duties usually apply across transactions, returns, adjustments, and supporting evidence. Deleting records too early can weaken audit defensibility and may itself be non-compliant.
What platform does
CoralLedger Comply enforces a minimum retention baseline and provides retention monitoring, enforcement previews, legal hold integration, and audit logging for retention actions.
These controls help prevent accidental premature deletion and provide visibility into upcoming purges or policy violations.
Customer responsibility
You remain responsible for preserving external source documents and ensuring policies align with legal obligations for your entity. If your risk profile requires longer retention, customer teams must configure and govern those extended policies.
Before any purge activity, your team should verify legal hold status, export needs, and downstream audit requirements.