Records, retention and the documents you must produce in year six
The audit arrives after the people who made the entries have left. The record is all that remains.
Section 35 requires every registered person to keep and maintain, at the principal place of business, a true and correct account of production, inward and outward supplies, stock, input tax credit, output tax and other prescribed particulars. Section 36 requires the records to be retained until the expiry of seventy two months from the due date of furnishing the annual return for the year, and where a person is a party to an appeal or revision, for one year after the final disposal or seventy two months, whichever is later.
What must be kept
The accounts and records prescribed by Section 35 and Rule 56, including the stock register, the credit register, the output tax register, and the register of goods sent for job work.
Invoices, bills of supply, delivery challans, credit and debit notes, receipt and payment vouchers, and refund vouchers.
Records maintained at each place of business, in respect of that place, and where records are kept electronically, in the prescribed manner with the ability to produce them.
The working papers behind every return and every position note, because a figure without a working paper cannot be explained in year six.
The practical retention plan
Seventy two months from the annual return due date is the base, extended where an appeal or revision is pending. In practice that means seven to ten years for a contested year.
Archive per year, indexed, with the returns, the reconciliations, the position notes, the ledgers and the correspondence in one place.
Include the portal downloads — GSTR-2B, the ledgers, the IMS action log — because they are not retrievable indefinitely from the portal.
Record who prepared what. In year six the question is often not what the number is but why it was taken, and the answer lives with a person who may have left.
What to do on Monday
Archive per financial year, indexed, including returns, reconciliations, position notes and ledgers.
Download GSTR-2B, the ledgers and the IMS log monthly and store them with the year's file.
Record the preparer and the reason for every material position.
Extend retention for any year under appeal until one year after final disposal.
This page states the general position. A reader with a specific question on their own facts may write to the GST practice at AMLEGALS.
Write to the GST practiceQuestions we are asked on this
How long must records be kept?
Seventy two months from the due date of the annual return for the year, and longer where an appeal or revision is pending.
Can records be kept electronically?
Yes, in the prescribed manner, with the ability to produce them and authenticate them.
Are portal downloads necessary?
Yes. GSTR-2B, the ledgers and the IMS action log should be downloaded and archived monthly; they are not retrievable indefinitely.
What is most often missing in year six?
The working papers and the reason for a position, not the invoices.
Does the retention period differ for a contested year?
Yes. It extends to one year after final disposal of the appeal or revision, or seventy two months, whichever is later.
In this cluster
- GST compliance calendar: the recurring dates that matter
- GSTR-1, GSTR-3B and the hard locking of auto populated values
- The Invoice Management System: accept, reject, pending and the consequences
- Bharti Airtel: the limits of rectifying a filed return, and what to do instead
- Credit notes, debit notes and the recipient reversal linkage
- The three year filing bar under Sections 37, 39 and 44
- Interest on delayed payment: Section 50 and Rule 88B
GST Insights is published by AMLEGALS for general information. Law stated as on 3 September 2026. Not advice on any particular set of facts; not an advertisement or a solicitation under Rule 36 of the Bar Council of India Rules. Readers with a question on their own facts may write to the GST practice of their own accord.