How can taxpayers preserve records required under the Tax Collection and Management (Wales) Act 2016?

Under section 39, taxpayers may preserve records required by sections 38 and 38A in any form and by any means. This includes electronic copies, scanned images, or digital formats. Alternatively, they may preserve just the information contained in those records, again in any form and by any means, without retaining original paper documents.

Can Welsh Ministers impose conditions on how records are preserved under section 39?

Yes, the Welsh Ministers have the power to make regulations imposing conditions on, or creating exceptions to, the general flexibility provided by section 39. Taxpayers should check whether any such regulations have been made that affect their particular circumstances before relying solely on the general permission to store records in any format.

Are there any overrides to the flexible record preservation rules in section 39?

Yes, the Landfill Disposals Tax (Wales) Act 2017 imposes specific preservation requirements for water discount records under section 21(7) and landfill disposals tax summaries under section 43(2). These prescriptive rules take priority over the general flexibility in section 39, meaning affected taxpayers must comply with the more specific landfill tax legislation.

Do taxpayers need to keep original paper documents for Welsh tax purposes?

No, section 39 of the Tax Collection and Management (Wales) Act 2016 confirms that there is no requirement to retain original paper documents. Taxpayers may keep records or the information they contain in any form, including scanned copies or secure digital storage, unless specific regulations or the Landfill Disposals Tax (Wales) Act 2017 require otherwise.

Tax Collection and Management (Wales) Act 2016 section 39

Preservation of information etc.

Section 39 explains how taxpayers may satisfy their duty to preserve records required under sections 38 and 38A, including the flexibility to store them in any format.

Records required to be preserved under sections 38 and 38A may be kept in any form and by any means — there is no requirement to retain original paper documents.
Alternatively, it is sufficient to preserve just the information contained in those records, again in any form and by any means.
The Welsh Ministers may make regulations imposing conditions on, or exceptions to, these flexible preservation methods.
Specific preservation requirements under the Landfill Disposals Tax (Wales) Act 2017 — for water discount records and landfill disposals tax summaries — override this general flexibility.

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