How long to keep tax and company records
How long a South African business must keep tax records for SARS and company records under the Companies Act, and when the clock stops running.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Running a business businesses in South Africa
Every few years someone in the business looks at the storeroom, the shared drive or the boxes at the accountant's office and asks whether it is safe to clear some of it out. The answer people remember is "five years", and for many tax documents that is right. But it is not the whole answer, and throwing away the wrong file at the wrong time can leave a business unable to defend a return or meet a company-law duty.
South African businesses answer to two sets of rules here: SARS's record-keeping rules for tax, and the Companies Act for company records. They set different periods and they start the clock at different moments. This article sets out both, the situations that extend them, and how to keep track.
Tax records: five years from submission
SARS says a person who has submitted a return must keep records for five years from the date the return was submitted.
Note where the clock starts. It is not the end of the tax year or the date of the transaction; it is the date the return was submitted. A return filed late starts its five years late. For a company, SARS's guide to the ITR14 return says the same of the supporting documents for that return: they must be retained for five years from the date the return is submitted.
So the right question for each box of records is not "how old is this?" but "which return does it support, and when was that return submitted?"
When the clock has not started, or has stopped
Two situations override the five years.
No return submitted. SARS says a person who was required to submit a return but has not done so must keep records indefinitely until the return is submitted. An unfiled return from years ago keeps every record behind it alive.
Audit, investigation, objection or appeal. SARS says records subject to an audit or investigation must be kept until it is concluded. The ITR14 guide puts it the same way for companies and adds objections and appeals: supporting documents are kept longer if the company is under audit, investigation, objection or appeal, until that is concluded.
In practice this means a dispute with SARS freezes the records connected with it, however old they are. Before any clear-out, ask your accountant whether any return is unfiled or any matter with SARS is still open.
SARS's page on record keeping sets out these periods and the situations that extend them, and it is the page to send to anyone in the business who wants to start shredding.
Company records: seven years under the Companies Act
Company law sets a longer period for its own records. CIPC says a company must keep for seven years a record of its directors, reports presented at annual general meetings, its annual financial statements and accounting records, and notices, minutes and resolutions of shareholder and director meetings.
The Companies Act as originally published, in section 24(1), requires a company to keep the records it must keep under the Act for seven years, in written form or in a form that can be converted into written form within a reasonable time. That published text does not reflect later amendments, so check the current consolidated Act or ask your company secretary if a detail matters. What the full list of company records looks like is covered in company records you must keep.
Where both apply, keep to the longer period
The overlap is the accounting records. The same invoice, bank statement or ledger can be a tax record for SARS and an accounting record for the Companies Act. Where both rules reach a document, the practical answer is to keep it for the longer of the two periods, and longer still if one of SARS's extensions applies.
| Type of record | SARS rule | Companies Act rule | Keep for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Records supporting a tax return | Five years from submission | Seven years if they are also accounting records | The longer period |
| Annual financial statements and accounting records | Five years from submission of the return they support | Seven years | Seven years, unless a SARS extension runs longer |
| Minutes, resolutions, director records | Not a tax rule as such | Seven years | Seven years |
| Anything tied to an unfiled return or an open SARS matter | Until filed or concluded | Seven years where it applies | Until both have run |
A short checklist before anything is destroyed:
- Identify the return each record supports and the date it was submitted.
- Confirm there is no unfiled return for that period.
- Confirm no audit, investigation, objection or appeal touches that period.
- Check whether the record is also a company record under the Companies Act.
- Record what was destroyed, when and on whose authority.
Retention and disposal in Achekam
Achekam's Document Centre is a folder-based store where a business uploads files or whole folders, previews, downloads, renames, moves, tags, archives and searches them. When a new version of a file is uploaded, the earlier versions are kept. Uploads go in batches of up to 25 files, with a default limit of 100 MB per file. Filing each year's supporting documents in a folder named for the return and its submission date makes the checklist above much quicker to work through later.
For records under Achekam's record governance, disposal is deliberately hard. Achekam disposes of a governed record only after its retention period has ended and no legal hold applies, and it needs three different people: one to request the disposal, one to review it and one to approve it. The disposal certificate keeps proof that the record was disposed of, but not the content. The controls sit under QUALITY & GOVERNANCE, in Record Governance, with legal holds beside retention and disposal.
A legal hold is the natural way to mark records connected with an open SARS audit or objection, so they cannot be disposed of while the matter runs. How to keep the records themselves in electronic form, and what SARS says about that, is covered in keeping tax records electronically.
Before the next clear-out
Write down a simple retention rule for the business, built on the longer period, and name the person who signs off any destruction. Then, when someone looks at the storeroom and asks whether it can go, the answer comes from the rule and the return dates rather than from memory.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
