How long to keep business records for CRA, by the calendar.

Every business owner eventually looks at a box of old paperwork, or a cluttered Google Drive, and wonders what they can safely delete. The answer to how long to keep business records for CRA is "six years," but that's not the whole story. Six years from when, and which records need longer?

This post is part of our Bookkeeping Basics series. It pairs well with our bookkeeping checklist for Alberta small businesses, which covers what to collect in the first place.

1The basic rule

CRA generally requires you to keep your business records and supporting documents for six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to. That applies to income tax and GST records alike, whether you're a sole proprietor filing a T2125 or a corporation filing a T2.

"Records" is broad. It includes:

• Sales invoices, receipts and point-of-sale reports
• Supplier invoices and receipts, including the GST details you need for input tax credits
• Bank and credit card statements, deposit records and cancelled cheques
• Your general ledger, journals and year-end financial statements
• Payroll records: timesheets, pay stubs, remittances and T4 slips
• Contracts, leases, loan agreements and vehicle logbooks
• Your filed returns and CRA notices of assessment

2How long to keep business records for CRA: worked dates

Say you're a sole proprietor in Edmonton with a calendar tax year. Here's how the rule plays out for different records:

The truck is the one people get wrong. Its purchase invoice relates to every year you claim CCA on it, and to the year you sell it, because the original cost decides whether there's recapture or a terminal loss. So the invoice from 2024 stays until the end of 2036, twelve years after you bought it.

Why six years, when reassessments are shorter?

CRA can normally reassess an individual or a Canadian-controlled private corporation within three years of the original notice of assessment, and many other corporations within four. So why keep records for six?

Because those normal periods have exceptions. CRA can go back further in cases of misrepresentation, and some items, like carry-forward losses and asset costs, affect future years. The six-year rule is the legal minimum for keeping records, regardless of how long the reassessment window is. Treat it as the floor, not a suggestion.

Payroll, GST and Alberta records

The same six-year rule generally applies across the board, but a few record types are worth calling out:

• Payroll: timesheets, pay records, TD1 forms, remittance confirmations and copies of T4 slips. If CRA reviews your payroll, these show that CPP, EI and income tax were deducted and remitted correctly.
• GST: the invoices behind every input tax credit you claim, plus your sales records and filed returns. The detail an invoice must show to support an ITC grows with the size of the purchase; larger purchases generally need the supplier's GST number, your business name and a description of what you bought. Check CRA's current requirements before relying on a till slip for a big purchase.
• Alberta corporations: Alberta administers its own corporate income tax, so your accountant files an Alberta return alongside the federal T2. The same books and records support both.
• Vehicle logs: a logbook supports the business-use percentage of your vehicle costs, and it's one of the first things a reviewer asks for.

3Paper, scans and digital records

You don't need a filing cabinet. CRA generally accepts electronic records as long as they're complete, legible and kept in a way you can retrieve and produce on request. A few points to get right:

• Records created electronically (emailed invoices, online statements, app data) should be kept in electronic form, not just printed.
• Scanned paper should be clear and complete, front and back where needed. CRA has guidance on imaging, so check it if you plan to shred originals.
• Back it up. If your only copy lives on one laptop, a dead hard drive becomes a tax problem.
• Location: CRA expects records to be kept at your place of business or residence in Canada, or available from Canada if stored electronically. If your provider stores data elsewhere, make sure you can always access and produce it.

4Records and QuickBooks Online

Your QuickBooks Online file is a record in its own right, and it's easy to forget that it only exists while you pay for it.

• Attach source documents. QuickBooks lets you attach receipts and invoices to transactions. That links each entry to its proof.
• Export at year-end. Save the general ledger, trial balance, profit and loss, balance sheet and GST reports for each year as PDF and Excel, outside QuickBooks.
• Before you cancel a subscription, export everything you need. Access after cancelling is limited and doesn't last forever.
• Bank statements still matter. The bank feed isn't a statement. Download the actual monthly statements for each account.

A simple folder structure

Whatever system you use, organize by year first, then by type. A structure like this makes any future request easy to answer:

• 2026 / Bank and card statements: one PDF per account per month.
• 2026 / Sales: invoices, platform payout reports and point-of-sale summaries.
• 2026 / Expenses: supplier invoices and receipts, ideally also attached in your bookkeeping software.
• 2026 / GST and payroll: returns, working papers, remittance confirmations and slips.
• 2026 / Year-end: financial statements, tax returns and notices of assessment.
• Assets (all years): purchase and sale documents for every capital asset, held until six years after you dispose of it.

At the start of each year, note which year's folders have passed the six-year mark, and check nothing in them relates to an asset you still own or an open matter with CRA before you delete.

Here's a year-end routine that covers you:

5A worked example: claiming ITCs without the paperwork

Say a CRA review asks you to support $9,000 of supplies, plus $450 of GST you claimed as input tax credits. You find bank statements showing the payments, but not the supplier invoices. Without invoices showing the supplier's GST number and the required details, the ITCs can be denied. If they are, the correction looks like this in your books:

The $450 you thought you'd recovered is now a cost, and you'll owe it back to CRA, possibly with interest. Bank statements show that you paid; invoices show what you paid for and how much GST was in it. You need both.

6Common record-keeping mistakes

• Counting six years from the purchase date instead of the end of the tax year.
• Shredding asset records while you still own the asset.
• Relying on bank statements alone. They don't show GST or what was bought.
• Losing the logbook. Vehicle claims need a log; our vehicle log guide explains what CRA expects.
• Destroying records early without CRA's permission. You can ask using Form T137 if you have a good reason.

Our monthly clients' records are reconciled, attached and saved as we go, so year-end is organized and future reviews are easy. We work with owners across Edmonton, Spruce Grove, Stony Plain and Leduc. If your records are scattered and you're not sure what you have, catch-up bookkeeping can rebuild them, or book a short call to talk it through.

7Questions people ask

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This article is general information for Alberta businesses and isn't tax or legal advice. Rules and thresholds change, so confirm your situation with your accountant or CRA.