Records and Books

Records are the piece of information or a description of some event that is written on paper
or stored on a computer. A thing constituting a piece of evidence about the past, especially
an account kept in writing or some other permanent form. Under Sales Tax Act, 1990 –
Section 22 through 25 deal with the books and records to be kept.

Records to be kept:
Under Sales Tax Act, a registered person making taxable supplies shall maintain the
following records of goods purchased, imported and supplies made by him:

 Records of good purchased, that also shows the information written below:
 Description, quantity, and value of goods
 Name, address and registration no. of supplier
 Amount of tax on purchases
 Records of supplies with the following information:
 Description, quantity, and value of goods
 Name and address of person to whom supplies are made
 Amount of tax charged
 Records of imported goods with following information:
 Description, quantity, and value of goods
 Amount of tax paid on imports
 Invoices, lease agreements, inventory records, credit/debit notes, bank statements,
salary and labour bills etc.

Provisions:
 These above mentioned records are to be maintained by the registered person at his
registered office or we can say business premises
 The records should be maintain in English or Urdu language
 FBR may require any person to keep some other records too, as specified by the
Board
 Boards can specify number of bank accounts and may require a registered person to
declare and use only specified bank accounts
 Companies registered under Sales Tax Act should submit a copy of their annual
audited accounts, also with a certificate by the auditors for the payment of due tax
by registered person

Records keeping on computer:

FBR may state that some class of registered persons shall use some Electronic Fiscal Cash
Registers, as suggested by the FBR. FBR can prescribe the procedure or software for
electronically maintenance of records, filing of sales tax returns, filing of refund claims etc.
Tax invoice:
Law states that every registered person should issue a tax invoice at time of making a supply
of goods. The tax invoice should be issued by a registered person, or a person paying retail
tax. Sales tax invoice should contain these following basics in Urdu or English language:

 Serial number
 Name, address and registration no. of the supplier
 Name, address and registration no. of the recipient (NIC or NTN in case of
unregistered person)
 Date of issuance of invoice
 Description, quantity and value of goods( exclusive of sales tax)
 Amount of sales tax
 Value inclusive of sales tax

In case of supplies to unregistered person, tax invoice shall also contain NIC or NTN as
mentioned above too. In some cases NIC or NTN is not required e.g. when the supplies are
sold to ordinary consumer (who is buying goods for his consumption, not for resale or
processing purpose), or when the transaction value does not exceed Rs.50, 000 (inclusive of
sales tax).

Retention of records and documents:

Under the Sales Tax Act, records and documents are to maintained and retained for a period
of 6 years after the end of the relevant tax period. You can destroy the records that are 6
years earlier or to which 6 year time period has passed. But if there’s any proceeding or case
pending before any authority or court, the tax payer have to maintain the record of that
year till the final decision of that case or proceeding.

Access to records and documents:

An officer of Inland Revenue can have access to all records and documents required to be
maintained by a person under Sales Tax Act. A person who is maintaining the data is bound
to provide it before the commissioner when asked or required. When the records are kept
electronically, the officer would have right to access the electronic data and use the
machine on which the data is kept by the person. And on the basis of the records obtained,
the officer of Inland Revenue may conduct audit too.