Accountability for business record keeping

As the business owner, you are accountable for understanding your record-keeping obligations. If you use a registered tax or BAS agent to manage your records, you still retain primary accountability.

Accountable management and oversight is one of the principles of effective tax governance that can benefit all businesses.

On this page:

• Our reviews and audits
• Penalties for not keeping or retaining records

Our reviews and audits

We have a responsibility to government and the community to ensure everyone complies with the laws we administer.

If we check your tax and super affairs, it doesn't mean we consider you've been untruthful. If we find a discrepancy, we accept mistakes can be made. We consider this if the law allows us to, when we determine if any penalties should apply.

We presume you're trying to meet your obligations unless your actions give us reason to believe otherwise.

If you need help, ask a registered tax or BAS agent, or contact us. We will help you get back on track if you make an error. We provide help through our advice, publications and visits. You can also discuss your record-keeping practices with our field officers if they come to visit you.

See also:

• Taxpayers' Charter – if you're subject to review or audit

Penalties for not keeping or retaining records

There are penalties that may apply if you don't keep or retain your records as required. We take your circumstances, compliance history and behaviour into consideration if we need to make a penalty decision, so ensure you discuss these with us.

Find out about:

• Setting up and managing your business records
• When to do record-keeping and reporting tasks
• Detailed business record-keeping requirements
• Index – Record keeping for business

See also:

• Failure to meet other tax obligations – penalty for not keeping or retaining records as required
• Dispute or object to an ATO decision