REVENUE REGULATIONS NO.

5-2014

The salient portions of the RR are as follows:

1. Taxpayers are required to preserve their books of accounts for a period of ten (10) years, which shall
be reckoned from the day following the deadline in filing the return, or if filed after deadline, from the
date of filing of the return, for the taxable year when the last entry was made in the books of accounts.
Within the first five (5) years thereof, taxpayers are required to retain hardcopies. Thereafter,
taxpayers may retain only an electronic copy thereof provided that the same is stored via an Electronic
Storage System (“ESS”).

2. The independent CPA who audited the records and certified the financial statements of the taxpayer is
also required to maintain and preserve electronic copies of the audited and certified financial
statements and their audit working papers for 10 years from due date of filing of the annual income
tax return or the actual date of filing thereof, whichever comes later.

3. Taxpayers and independent CPAs who use an ESS must completely transfer images of the hardcopies of
above documents. They should have reasonable controls to ensure the integrity, accuracy, and
reliability of their ESS.

What type of accounting records need to be preserved?

As a basic rule, all accounting-related records relevant to each transaction performed by filipino businesses
must be preserved. The BIR requires that records be maintained “intact, unaltered and unmutilated.” Revenue
Regulation 17-2013 specifically provides that the following documents must be retained by businesses:

a. Books of Accounts – these are the books where business transactions are recorded and maintained. General
ledgers and general journals are primary records within the books of accounts. Check out our article on books
of accounts in the Philippines for more information

b. Subsidiary books – these are books of accounts where similar transactions are recorded in chronological
order. Examples of these are cash receipts journal, cash disbursement journal, sales journal and purchases
journal

c. Other accounting records – “other accounting records” include invoices, receipts, vouchers, returns and
other source documents that support entries into the books of accounts

d. Registers – these are accounting records that illustrate the transactions for each account together with the
running balance

e. Vouchers – this is an accounting document used to prepare payments to creditors