C6e Retention of business records 5 / 7

How long should business records be kept?

Business records and personal records need to be retained for a number of years after the tax returns have been submitted for that year.

The time for which these records need to be retained for the tax year 24/25 are:

Retention of records 
Company's records6 years from the end of the accounting period
Self employed - business and non business records5 years from 31January following end of the tax year
Employed12 months from 31 January following end of the tax year

A failure to retain records could result in a penalty of up to £3,000 per accounting period.

However the maximum penalty will only be charged in serious cases.