Closed company - keeping records

[mikef]

I dissolved a company in December 2020 and would like to dispose of old records as they are taking up space, specifically boxes full of receipts and printed bank statements.

I know that I need to keep records for six full accounting years - but does that mean all records from April 2014? Or six years from now?

Do I need to keep original receipts? It would be huge job to scan them all... Or is a spreadsheet with supplier, date, amount and supplier's reference sufficient? Similarly a complete bank book on a spreadsheet

I had all this stuff in a Big Yellow locker, but their rental has gone up to well over a grand a year for a small space, and I don't really fancy this paperwork littering up my home office

Edited by mikef on Thursday 16th October 16:38

[Countdown]

It's 6 complete financial years from when the last transaction took place.

We keep the original receipts/Invoices (actually we don't any more, we scan them as soon as we get them - far easier to store and retrieve)

[mikef]

That's a bit of a nuisance, but thanks

[Hill92]

It's 6 years from the financial period the records relate to, as long as they don't relate to transactions extending into later periods, e.g. a long term contract.

So potentially at this point you only have to retain 2019 until the end of the year and 2020 until the end of the next year, depending on the accounting reference dates and date of dissolution. You could get rid of earlier years now if that helps save space.

[mikef]

Ah, that's quite a different answer from the one above

Also, looking at this summary of Retention of Accounting Records and other Corporate Records, it may not be necessary to retain actual purchase receipts or even scans as long as there is a "Payments cash book or record of payments made"

Is it a matter of "do you feel lucky, punk"?

[mikef]

OK, so I got inconsistent answers on this

But it does make me wonder - I know a number of people who do all their accounting online, including uploading scanned copies of supplier invoices - Quickbooks etc. Presumably that means that they need to keep paying for those subscription service for 6+ years after closing their companies (?)

[Tymb]

I believe in Xero you can download the accounts, so presumably could do that and put copies safe somewhere.

[mikef]

Worth doing a quick test for anyone using any of these cloud accounting packages

[Hill92]

Tymb said:

I believe in Xero you can download the accounts, so presumably could do that and put copies safe somewhere.

https://central.xero.com/s/article/Export-data-out...

[mikef]

That package looks to be exporting a summary of supplier invoices, not any scans of receipts that you have uploaded. So back to my question - is it sufficient for me to retain a complete cashbook showing supplier invoices (date, item, supplier, amount, VAT, suppliers' reference) or do I really need to keep boxes of receipts?

As my company is closed, I no longer have a company accountant to ask (and sadly, he has passed away in the meantime)

[Beetnik]

To answer your last question, yes, you should keep the original record to evidence each transaction - but, as others have correctly pointed out, only for six years after the relevant accounting period so you won't now need to have more than two years' records.

And, yes, I'd say it is a case of 'do you feel lucky, punk'. What's the worst that can happen? What's happened that makes the chance of an investigation likely? (One at random, virtually nil if you've been a good boy).

Some interesting reading here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dissolv...

[mikef]

Excellent, thanks!

Nothing dodgy, and company closed down properly. It was left over from the days when I did some IT contracting, last invoice in March 2018, so over six years ago

[lrdisco]

Resign as a director. Chuck everything away.