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CMA Final · Indirect Tax Laws and Practice · Accounts and Records

Under the CGST Act, 2017, a registered person must retain books of account and other records required under section 35(1) until the expiry of a stated period from a stated date. Which is that period and date?

Books of account and records must be retained until seventy-two months have expired from the due date of furnishing the annual return for the relevant year. The reckoning point is the statutory due date, not the actual filing date or the year-end, and the period is seventy-two months.

  1. ASeventy-two months from the due date of furnishing the annual return for the year pertaining to the accountsCorrect
  2. BSixty months from the date of actual filing of the annual return for that year
  3. CSeventy-two months from the end of the financial year to which the accounts relate
  4. DThirty-six months from the due date of furnishing the annual return for that year

Explanation

Section 36 requires retention until the expiry of seventy-two months from the due date of furnishing the annual return for the year pertaining to the accounts. The period runs from the due date, not from actual filing or year-end, so the options using the filing date or financial year-end are wrong. Sixty and thirty-six months are not the prescribed periods.

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