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Keep your business records for six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to, and keep them at your home or business in Canada unless the CRA has agreed to somewhere else. Paper and digital records both count. That’s the rule in a sentence, and the rest of this page is about living with it.
Keep your records for six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to, unless you have permission from the CRA to destroy them earlier.
Keeping Records, Canada Revenue Agency, canada.ca
How long do you keep business records?
Six years, counted from the end of the last tax year the record touches. So a supplier invoice from March 2025 belongs to the tax year ending December 31, 2025, and you’d keep it until the end of 2031. A record that covers two years, such as a multi-year contract, runs from the later year.
Want to throw something out sooner? You can, but only with the CRA’s written permission. Sending the request is easy. Waiting for the answer is the part people skip, and then the shredder wins.
What counts as a record?
More than receipts. The CRA lists ledgers, journals, financial statements, returns and correspondence, plus what your computer systems produce, such as accounting software and point-of-sale data. For GST/HST that includes every sales and purchase invoice.
| Record | Examples |
|---|---|
| Income | Sales invoices, till or platform reports, bank deposit slips |
| Expenses | Supplier invoices, receipts, credit card statements |
| GST/HST | Sales and purchase invoices, copies of returns |
| Books | Ledgers, journals, financial statements |
| Filed items | Tax returns, notices of assessment, CRA letters |
| System data | Accounting software files, exports from your payment tools |
Employees have less to hold on to. If you only have a T4, keep the slip, your receipts for anything you claim, and your notice of assessment. Business owners carry the heavier load, and that’s who this page is for. Not sure what your own pile should look like? The self-employed expenses checklist is a decent place to start.
Where do you have to keep them?
At your residence or place of business in Canada. If your bookkeeping lives on a cloud service or a server abroad, settle that with the CRA directly before you rely on it. The pages we read don’t say a foreign server is fine, so don’t assume it is.
Handing the job to a bookkeeper doesn’t hand off the duty, either. You’re still responsible for making sure adequate records exist, and you have to produce them when the CRA asks. If your bookkeeper retires or disappears, that’s your problem, so ask for a full copy at year end.
Why does a missing receipt cost money?
Because the CRA can review your books, and an expense you can’t back up may come out of your claim. Then the tax on that amount comes back to you.
Try the size of it. A self-employed person in Ontario with $80,000 of net income owes $22,126 in income tax and CPP, according to the self-employed tax calculator. If $5,000 of the expenses behind that profit can’t be supported, the profit becomes $85,000 and the figure rises to $23,890. That’s $1,764 more, all because of paper you couldn’t find. A few bucks of parking slips adds up when you do it all year.
The calculator leaves out EI and GST/HST, so the real gap moves a little. But it’s a useful size check.
The profit margin calculator is a second check. If your margin looks odd against your books, the records usually explain why.
What does a working system look like?
Nothing fancy, and it doesn’t need software. Pick one place for receipts and use it every week. Photograph paper receipts the day you get them, since thermal paper fades. Name files by date and supplier. Export your sales platform’s reports each month and save a copy with the rest.
Once you have income to report, the tax instalments calculator can tell you if you’ll owe quarterly payments, and the income tax calculator shows the tax on a given income.
What should you do if you’ve already lost something?
Don’t panic, and don’t invent a replacement. Ask the supplier for a copy of the invoice, pull the bank or card statement that shows the payment, and write a short note on what the money bought and why. Most suppliers can reissue an invoice in a day or two. A statement alone is thin, but it’s far better than nothing, and a plain note made when you notice the gap is better than a story pieced together years later.
If a CRA letter has already arrived, the guide to dealing with the CRA covers what to do first.
Does the CRA fine you for bad records?
The Keeping Records publication we read doesn’t put a penalty amount on it, so we won’t quote one. The everyday cost is the one above: a claim you can’t support gets disallowed.
Where the numbers come from
The six-year rule, storage location and the record types come from the Canada Revenue Agency‘s Keeping Records publication (RC188), read in September 2026. The dollar figures come from the calculators on this site, using 2026 tax data for Ontario. This site isn’t connected to the CRA or any government.
Frequently asked questions
How long does the CRA say to keep business records?
Six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to, unless the CRA has given permission to destroy them sooner.
Do digital records count?
Yes. The CRA includes records created by computerized systems, such as accounting software and point-of-sale systems, alongside paper.
Can I destroy records early?
Only with the CRA's written approval. Ask first and wait for the answer.
Does my accountant's copy satisfy the rule?
No. You stay responsible for adequate records even when a bookkeeper or accountant keeps them for you.
Is there a fixed penalty for poor records?
We didn't find an amount on the CRA's record-keeping publication, so we don't quote one.
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