How long to keep records in the UK

Every retention period has a length and a starting day, and both decide the date. Payroll records run for 3 years once the tax year is over, and VAT records for 6 years from each invoice. Receipts and bills carry no duty at all; a limitation period of 6 years is why many households hold them that long. On the day after a period ends, the record may go.

A limited company with a financial year ending 31 December 2024 keeps its accounting records until 31 December 2030, the worked example in HMRC's manual CH14600. A sole trader's business records for 2022 to 2023 stay until 31 January 2029, as GOV.UK's guidance on self-employed records shows. For a personal Self Assessment return, GOV.UK puts the period at least 22 months after the tax year ends. The VAT calculator works out the tax on the invoices those VAT records hold.

Three kinds of basis sit behind these dates. A legal duty means a statute orders the record to be kept, often with a penalty. A limitation period sets no duty, but it limits how long a claim can be brought, and the record is the evidence until then. Official guidance is a recommendation from a public body with no law behind the figure. The reference cases rerun the published GOV.UK and HMRC examples through the same rules, as the methodology explains.

A limited company is bound by two separate record duties, and the longer one decides. The Companies Act 2006 requires a private company to keep accounting records for 3 years from the date they are made. A public company keeps them for 6 (Companies Act 2006 s388). For Corporation Tax, Finance Act 1998 Schedule 18 sets a longer span: until the sixth anniversary of the close of the period a Company Tax Return covers. HMRC treats the tax period as the one that applies.

HMRC's own example uses an accounting period that ended on 31 March 2010: its records were kept until 31 March 2016 and could go from 1 April 2016. The checker asks for the month the financial year ends, because a document belongs to the accounting period it falls in. A purchase invoice of 20 November 2024, in a company whose year ends in March, sits in the year ending 31 March 2025. It may go from 1 April 2031.

Some company records stay longer than the standard span. The usual cases are these:

• A transaction that runs across more than one accounting period, such as a long contract or a loan.
• An asset expected to last more than 6 years, whose purchase records support later capital allowances or a sale.
• A Company Tax Return sent late, which pushes the date back.
• A compliance check that HMRC has opened and not yet closed.

Statutory books are the company's own registers and minute books, kept apart from the accounts. Minutes of directors' meetings and members' resolutions have their own span of 10 years from the meeting (Companies Act 2006 s248 and s355). Failing to keep the tax records can lead to a penalty of up to £3,000 for each accounting period, and missing company law records is an offence by the officers.

A sole trader, each partner in a partnership and a landlord with rental income keep their business records under one rule. It runs to "the fifth anniversary of the 31st January next following the year of assessment" (TMA 1970 s12B(2)(a)). The year of assessment is the tax year, from 6 April to 5 April.

For 2022 to 2023, the online return was due by 31 January 2024. Its records are kept until 31 January 2029 and may go from 1 February 2029, the same end GOV.UK gives in its own example. For self-employed people, accounting records include sales and takings, purchase receipts, expenses, business bank statements and any VAT or payroll records the business also holds.

Two events push the date further out. If HMRC opens an enquiry into the return, the records stay until the enquiry is completed. A late return sent more than 4 years after the deadline has its own end: the records stay for 15 months after the day it was sent.

Closing the business does not shorten anything, because every year of trading keeps its own deadline. A business that stops trading on 30 September 2026 has its final records counted from 31 January 2028. They are kept until 31 January 2033.

VAT records run for 6 years from each invoice's date, the most VAT law lets HMRC demand, according to GOV.UK's guide to keeping VAT records. An invoice of 15 June 2020 may therefore go from 16 June 2026. A business that uses the VAT One Stop Shop, or the former Mini One Stop Shop, keeps those records for 10 years instead. Failing to keep VAT records can cost £500.

PAYE records cover pay, deductions, tax codes and payslips, the P60 handed over every spring and the P45 given to a leaver. An employer keeps them for 3 years after the end of the tax year they relate to, as GOV.UK's PAYE guidance for employers states. Payroll records for 2025 to 2026 stay until 5 April 2029. Statutory Maternity Pay records follow the same span, counted from the tax year in which the maternity pay period ends.

National Minimum Wage records last 6 years, beginning with the day the following pay reference period ends. That is why the checker asks for that end date. A pay period whose successor ends on 30 September 2026 keeps its records until 29 September 2032. The 6 years have applied since 1 April 2021.

Holiday pay records became a legal duty on 6 April 2026, when the Employment Rights Act 2025 added a records rule to the working time law. Records of annual leave and the holiday pay that went with it are kept for 6 years from the day they were made (Working Time Regulations 1998 reg 16B). A record made on 1 May 2026 may go from 2 May 2032. The rule covers England, Wales and Scotland, and whether it reaches records made before it started is unclear. The holiday payout calculator works out what untaken leave is worth when someone leaves.

• Working time records of weekly hours, night work and young workers: 2 years from when each was made.
• Right to work check copies: 2 years after employment ends, so a job ending 30 June 2026 frees them from 1 July 2028. From 1 October 2026 this also covers digital images and identity service confirmations.
• Accident book entries: 3 years from the entry.

No, not as a rule: a private person has no general duty to keep bank statements, utility bills or receipts. The duty starts only with a tax return. GOV.UK's page on how long to keep records says they are needed "if you have to send HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) a Self Assessment tax return".

For a return sent on time, the records stay for 1 year after the 31 January deadline (TMA 1970 s12B(2)(b)). Personal records for 2024 to 2025 are kept until 31 January 2027. They include payslips, a P60 or P45, bank interest statements, pension statements and records of gifts to charity.

Records of buying and improving an asset count from the tax year it is sold in, not the year it was bought. Shares sold on 15 August 2025 keep their purchase records until 31 January 2028, however long ago they were bought.

Outside tax, the Limitation Act 1980 limits how long a claim on a contract can be brought: 6 years from the day the claim arose (Limitation Act 1980 s5). A receipt dated 10 March 2026 stays useful as evidence until 10 March 2032. Deeds have 12 years. Scotland uses prescription instead, usually 5 years for contract debts and 20 for obligations under a deed. Faults in goods follow the Consumer Rights Act, whose deadlines the consumer rights time limits checker works out.

Four years as a rule, six when tax was lost through carelessness and twenty when it was deliberate. These are time limits for an assessment under the Taxes Management Act, not periods for keeping records, and they are longer than most retention periods.

Once the window for opening an enquiry has closed, HMRC can still raise a discovery assessment when it finds that tax was under-assessed. Corporation Tax follows the same four, six and twenty years, and VAT has four, or twenty for deliberate errors. Offshore matters can reach back 12 years.

A return that turns out careless can therefore be questioned after its records may lawfully have gone. Without the records, the figures rest on reconstructions and estimates. This gap is the reason some businesses keep records beyond the statutory minimum. HMRC can also agree a shorter period in writing in a particular case.

Data protection law sets a limit from the other side once a period ends. The storage limitation principle of the UK GDPR says personal data is kept no longer than the purpose needs. Former staff files and customer records are therefore not held for ever without a reason.

Secure shredding destroys paper so it cannot be pieced together, usually with a cross-cut shredder or a shredding service that issues a certificate of destruction. Digital copies go the same way: deleted from the device, the backups and any cloud storage.

Digital records are accepted in place of paper when they are complete and readable. Making Tax Digital for Income Tax applies from 6 April 2026 to qualifying income above £50,000. The threshold falls to £30,000 from 6 April 2027 and to £20,000 from 6 April 2028. It changes the form of the records, not how long they are kept.

Each result is the statutory minimum for an ordinary case, counted to the end of the last day. Several situations move the real date, and the checker does not model them:

• An open enquiry or compliance check, which keeps records until it is closed.
• A late return, which can count from the day it was sent.
• HMRC agreeing in writing that particular records may go sooner.
• Northern Ireland holiday records, which fall outside the new duty; the checker shows the rule for Great Britain.
• One Stop Shop records, kept for 10 years, which appear only as a note on the VAT row.
• Scottish prescription periods, which appear only as notes on private papers.