Hong Kong Ordinances

INLAND REVENUE ORDINANCE - SECT 51C

Business records to be kept

(1) Subject to subsection (2), every person carrying on a trade, profession or
business in Hong Kong shall keep sufficient records in the English or Chinese
language of his income and expenditure to enable the assessable profits of
such trade, profession or business to be readily ascertained and shall retain
such records for a period of not less than 7 years after the completion of the
transactions, acts or operations to which they relate. (Amended 7 of 1986 s.
12)

(2) Subsection (1) shall not require the preservation of any records-

   (a)  which the Commissioner has specified need not be preserved; or

   (b)  of a corporation which has been dissolved.

(3) For the purposes of this section, "records" (紀錄) includes-

   (a)  books of account (whether kept in a legible form, or in a non-legible
        form by means of a computer or otherwise) recording receipts and
        payments, or income and expenditure; and

   (b)  vouchers, bank statements, invoices, receipts, and such other
        documents as are necessary to verify the entries in the books of
        account referred to in paragraph (a). (Added 48 of 1995 s. 10)

(4) Without limiting the generality of subsection (3), the records required to
be kept and retained pursuant to subsection (1) in respect of any trade,
profession or business carried on during any year of assessment by any person,
include-

   (a)  a record of the assets and liabilities of the person in relation to
        that trade, profession or business;

   (b)  a record of all entries from day to day of all sums of money received
        and expended by the person in relation to that trade, profession or
        business and the matters in respect of which the receipt and
        expenditure take place;

   (c)  where that trade, profession or business involves dealing in goods-

        (i)    a record of all goods purchased, and of all goods sold in the
               carrying on of that trade, profession or business (except those
               sold in the course of cash retail trading customarily conducted
               in a trade, profession or business of the kind of which that
               trade, profession or business is one) showing the goods, and
               the sellers and buyers in sufficient detail to enable the
               Commissioner to readily verify the quantities and values of the
               goods and the identities of the sellers and buyers; and all
               invoices relating thereto; and

        (ii)   statements (including quantities and values) of trading stock
               held by the person- (A) at the end of each year of assessment;
               or (B) where the Commissioner is satisfied that the accounts of
               such trade, profession or business are made up to a day other
               than 31 March, on that day in the year of assessment, and all
               records of stocktakings from which any such statement of
               trading stock has been prepared; and

   (d)  where that trade, profession or business involves the provision of
        services, records of the services provided in sufficient detail to
        enable the Commissioner to readily verify the entries referred to in
        paragraph (b). (Added 48 of 1995 s. 10) (Added 26 of 1969 s. 28)

"records" (紀錄)