Registers and Supporting Documents

If you operate a business in Québec, you must keep registers. Registers must contain the information we need to verify your business income and expenses in order to determine any amount payable.

Registers must also contain the information we need to verify the GST and QST amounts collected or collectible by you and remitted or remittable by you (if you are claiming ITCs or ITRs), as well as the information used to calculate your source deductions and employer contributions.

Keeping documents

You must keep supporting documents, such as

• a daily statement of your income, along with invoices and cash register tape
• a daily statement of your operating expenses, along with your cancelled cheques, voided cheques and receipts. To substantiate your ITC and ITR claims, you must ensure that certain information is included on your invoices
• a statement of kilometres travelled, for each automobile used for both business and personal purposes
• documents substantiating trips
• documents substantiating capital expenditures
• your credit card bills and monthly statements
• registers indicating your employees’ names, their salaries and wages, and the amounts withheld from the remuneration you pay them

You must keep your registers and supporting documents (either on paper or on electronic media) at your place of business, your home, or any other place that we designate. In the event of an audit, you must make these records available to our employees within a reasonable time.

As a rule, your registers and supporting documents (including those on electronic media) must be kept for at least six years after the last taxation year to which they apply. The taxation year for a sole proprietorship or a partnership is the calendar year. The taxation year for a corporation is its fiscal period.

However, if you file certain documents late for a given year, you must keep the registers and supporting documents for that year for six years after the date on which you filed the documents. This is the case if, for example, you file any of the following documents late:

• the corporation income tax return (form CO-17)
• the personal income tax return (form TP-1-V)
• the Summary of Source Deductions and Employer Contributions (RLZ-1.S-V), which must be filed annually by every financial institution that is not a corporation, because of the compensation tax (1.5%) it is required to pay

You may also have to keep your documents for more than six years if you file a notice of objection or you appeal to the courts.