Be smart – save yourself time and worry by keeping all of your electronic business records current.
“If the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) comes knocking at your door to conduct a business audit, don't be surprised if you are asked to produce your books and records in electronic format,” says Chartered Accountant Jodi Lycett, Taxation Partner in the St. Catharines office of Durward Jones Barkwell & Company LLP.
“If you keep your records in an electronic format, CRA auditors are within their rights to ask for your disks, tapes and memory sticks that store your financial information. Once they have obtained your electronic records, CRA will download the information into its audit software programs. This allows the auditors to perform their work more efficiently.
“By law, business owners and operators are required to keep the majority of their books, records and their related accounts and source documents for a minimum of six years (with shorter periods prescribed on the cessation of business). Any person who keeps records electronically must retain them in an ‘electronically readable format’ for this same period,” advises Lycett.
Brought to you by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario is the qualifying and regulatory body of Ontario’s 33,000 Chartered Accountants and 5,000 CA students. Since 1879, the Institute has protected the public interest through the CA profession’s high standards of qualification and the enforcement of its rules of professional conduct. The Institute works in partnership with the other provincial Institutes of Chartered Accountants and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants to provide national standards and programs that are used as examples around the world. </em>
