The government has now presented a legislative council referral suggesting the elimination of the requirement to preserve original accounting material for a certain period. This change is eagerly awaited by businesses, as it spares them from managing large amounts of paper for extended durations.
Under current archiving requirements, accounting information must be archived until the end of the seventh year after the calendar year in which the fiscal year ended. When companies have digitized accounting information, they must also archive the accounting information in its original form for three calendar years after the calendar year in which the fiscal year ended. This entails a requirement to archive paper receipts, paper invoices, and other paper materials containing accounting information in addition to digital records.
In the future, it will be sufficient for companies to retain digital accounting information during the archiving period. Archiving accounting information on paper may soon be a thing of the past.
The new regulations are proposed to take effect on July 1, 2024.
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