If you wish to preserve your records in other forms, you do not need to seek approval from the Comptroller of GST.
However, you must comply with the guidelines set in the e-Tax Guides "Keeping of records in Imaging Systems" (169KB) and "Keeping machine-sensible Records and Electronic Invoicing" (125KB).
For more information on the basic record keeping practices recommended for income tax and GST purposes, you may wish to refer to the Record Keeping Guide for GST-registered Businesses (132KB).
FAQs
You are required to keep your records pertaining to prescribed accounting periods ending before 1 Jan 2007 for seven years. For records pertaining to prescribed accounting periods ending on or after 1 Jan 2007, you are required to keep the records for five years.
Consider the case whereby you have lost some of your shipping records. If you are unable to provide supporting documents to prove the export of your goods, you will have to treat your sale as a local supply and account for the GST accordingly.
Similarly, if you are unable to furnish sufficient documents to support your input tax clam, your input tax claim will be disallowed.
In addition, penalties may be imposed for failure to maintain sufficient documents to support your GST declaration.