Registers must be kept by any trust that carries on a business or is required to deduct, withhold or collect an amount under a fiscal law. Regardless of the data-storage medium used, registers and supporting documents include:

• the trust deed;
• the will or declaration of heredity, together with a list of the assets at the time of death;
• invoices, receipts and other documents substantiating the information that is or should be entered in a register; and
• any document that brings together information for accounting, financial, fiscal or legal purposes, such as the general journal, special journals, and the inventory of property, drawn up in the prescribed manner.

How long to keep supporting documents

Registers and supporting documents must be kept for a period of six years after the end of the last taxation year to which they apply, or, in the case of an income tax return filed after the prescribed deadline, for a period of six years after the date on which the return for the year in question was filed.

If registers and supporting documents are kept on an electronic or computer medium, they must be kept in an intelligible form on the same medium for the same period. Moreover, the trust must take all necessary measures to ensure and maintain their integrity throughout their life cycle.

Any trust that claims a tax relief (deduction in the calculation of income, tax exemption for income, tax credit, etc.) must keep the supporting documents for the claim.

Registers and supporting documents must be kept more than six years if the trust filed a notice of objection, a contestation or an appeal under tax legislation. In such a case, the trust must keep the documents necessary for the review of the objection, contestation or appeal until the deadline for filing a contestation under section 93.1.10 or 93.1.13 of the Tax Administration Act has expired or until the date the judgment is rendered on the contestation or, where applicable, until any other deadline for bringing an appeal or until judgment on such an appeal is rendered.

In all cases, the Minister of Revenue of Québec may authorize in writing that the documents be destroyed before this time period has expired.