Trusts – Registers and Supporting Documents
Any trust that carries on a business or is required to deduct, withhold or collect an amount under a fiscal law must keep registers and supporting documents at its establishment or any other location designated and authorized by us.
The registers and documents must contain the information required for us to verify the trust's business income and expenses and establish any amount payable by the trust under a fiscal law. We must have access to the registers and documents if we do an audit. 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 generally be kept for six years after the last year to which they apply, or for an income tax return filed late, for six years after the date it 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 this period. Any trust that obtains a tax relief (deduction in the calculation of income, tax exemption for income, tax credit, etc.) must keep the supporting documents for the claim.
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 all cases, the Minister of Revenue of Québec may authorize in writing that the documents be destroyed before this time period has expired.