Required records versus good-practice schedules
The checklist calls required records mandatory for tax purposes. Recommended records are good practice and should be available or reproducible when the Comptroller of Income Tax/GST asks. The two business-category columns matter: a tick in one should not be copied into the other. The sheet itself specifies no retention period, so it should not be used to invent a document-destruction date.
Sales evidence common to both categories
Both GST-registered and non-GST businesses keep numbered receipts, cash-register tapes or issued invoices, signed landlord/tenant rental agreements, records of goods taken privately, credit notes for returns and export documents. The GST column additionally ticks issued tax/simplified tax invoices and evidence of receipts such as bank statements. The distinction follows the matrix, without suggesting that the un-ticked category can dispense with all proof of income.
Expenses, purchases and GST-specific movements
Both categories retain expense invoices/receipts, payments for services with contracts, staff remuneration vouchers and employer CPF contributions. Both also retain purchase invoices/receipts and import documents. Extra payment-evidence rows are ticked for GST businesses. The GST-only other-record section covers goods used outside business, disposals whether or not for consideration, and removal from customs-licensed warehouses.
Books, bank statements and recommended schedules
Both categories keep stock lists, sales and purchase books/listings, general ledgers, balance sheets and profit-and-loss statements. GST businesses also keep input/output-tax summaries including tourist GST refunds. Bank statements with separate personal/business accounts are marked required for GST businesses and recommended for non-GST businesses. Both are advised to maintain detailed public-transport, travel and entertainment schedules, fixed-asset schedules and capital-allowance records.
Official source
This article independently explains the substantive contents of the official PDF, including the relevant conditions, procedures and annexes. The linked document remains the authoritative source for its original wording, and later changes should be checked separately.
Read the official PDF ↗