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CA Intermediate · Taxation · Accounts and Records

Mehta Electricals, a registered person, filed its annual return for the financial year 2024-25 on 31 December 2025. Its audit was not applicable. Assume the due date for the annual return was 31 December 2025. Counting the retention period for records under section 36 of the CGST Act, until when must it retain books of account and documents, if no appeal or proceedings are pending?

Mehta Electricals must retain the records up to 31 December 2031, because the law requires retention for seventy-two months, that is six years, reckoned from the due date of furnishing the annual return for the relevant year.

  1. ASeventy-two months from the due date of furnishing annual return for 2024-25, i.e. up to 31 December 2031Correct
  2. BSixty months from the due date of furnishing annual return for 2024-25, i.e. up to 31 December 2030
  3. CSeventy-two months from 1 April 2025
  4. DSeventy-two months from the end of the financial year 2024-25, i.e. up to 31 March 2031

Explanation

Records must be retained for 72 months from the due date of furnishing the annual return for the year to which they relate. 31 December 2025 plus 72 months (6 years) is 31 December 2031. Sixty months is not the prescribed period.

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