If you use a business activity statement (BAS) to report and pay the GST your business has collected and to claim GST credits, you need to keep all supporting records.
Records required for GST
You need to keep records that show the income and expenses used to calculate and support the amounts you report and claim for GST credits. This includes all sales, tax invoices and other GST-related transactions, fees, expenses, wages and any other business costs.
You must keep any other documents that record adjustments, a decision or a calculation made for GST purposes.
If your records don't adequately support your claims, we may adjust or deny some claims, so it's important to keep the right records and to get your calculations right.
It is recommended that you set aside your GST in a separate ledger account to make your record keeping and calculations easier.
You don’t need a tax invoice to claim GST credits for taxable imports (goods your business imports into Australia). However, to meet the record-keeping requirements, you must have documents from the Department of Home Affairs showing the amount of GST you paid on those imports.
If you operate a ride-sourcing enterprise, there are additional record-keeping requirements for the sharing economy.
How long you need to keep GST records
You need to keep your GST records for five years, starting from when you prepared or obtained the records, or completed the transactions or acts those records relate to, whichever is later.
You should keep records long enough to cover the period of review (also known as the amendment period) for an assessment that uses information from the record.
Find out about:
- Records connected to an assessment that's amended
- Sharing economy records
- Index – Record keeping for business
See also:
ATO information for businesses about record-keeping requirements for GST you report and pay on your business activity statement (BAS).