The Australian Tax Office is honing in on small businesses failing to comply with guidelines regarding appropriate record keeping.

Findings from the ATO’s Protecting Honest Business campaign indicated that one of the leading factors for small business failure is their poor record keeping practices. Small business owners are required to disclose particular information, and keep records of the following:

• Income tax records
• Income and sales records
• Expense or purchase records
• Year-end records
• Bank records
• Goods and services tax records
• Employees and contractors records
• Fuel tax records

By law, all Australian businesses must keep these records for a period of five years. These records must be in writing, either on paper or electronically. Dedicating time each week, fortnight or month to compile all the above-listed information will prevent you incurring fines and possibly losing your business.