How long to
keep invoices

Invoices are business records, and HMRC can ask to see them for years after you sent them. How long you must keep them depends on how you trade and whether you are VAT registered. The safe rule for most small businesses is to keep everything for at least six years, but the exact periods are below.

Sole traders and partners

GOV.UK says self-employed people must keep their records for at least 5 years after the 31 January submission deadline of the relevant tax year. HMRC may check them to make sure you are paying the right amount of tax. Its own example: if you sent your 2022 to 2023 tax return online by 31 January 2024, you must keep your records until at least the end of January 2029.

If you send a return very late, more than 4 years after the deadline, you need to keep the records for 15 months after you send it.

VAT-registered businesses

VAT Notice 700/21 says you must generally keep all your business records for VAT purposes for at least 6 years. Records you use for other tax purposes may need to be kept longer. If the 6-year rule causes serious storage problems or undue expense, you can ask HMRC about keeping them for a shorter period.

Limited companies

A company must keep records for 6 years from the end of the last company financial year they relate to, or longer in some cases, for example where a transaction covers more than one accounting period, the company bought something expected to last more than 6 years, the Company Tax Return was sent late, or HMRC has started a compliance check.

What to keep

Keep every sales invoice you send, including cancelled ones and credit notes, and every purchase invoice and receipt you receive. Keep the records that connect them to money: bank statements, payment confirmations and remittance advices. Keep supporting documents such as contracts, quotes and delivery notes where they explain an invoice. Together they are your accounts receivable and accounts payable history.

Paper or digital

You can keep records on paper or digitally. If you scan paper invoices, make sure the copy is complete and readable, including both sides where there is information on the back. Making Tax Digital requires digital records for the businesses it covers, and from April 2029 VAT invoices will be exchanged as e-invoices, so digital record keeping is where every business is heading.

If records are lost

If records are lost, stolen or destroyed, do your best to recreate them and tell HMRC, especially if it affects a tax return. Backing up digital records regularly avoids the problem.

A simple retention plan

Keep each year's records together, labelled by tax year or financial year. At the end of each year, note the earliest date that year's records can go: for a sole trader, five years after the following 31 January; for VAT and companies, six years. Then only delete once that date passes and no enquiry is open.

Why it matters beyond HMRC

Old invoices also settle customer disputes, support insurance and finance applications, and prove what you earned when you apply for a mortgage. The cost of keeping digital records is tiny compared with trying to rebuild them later. And an unbroken invoice number sequence makes it easy to show that nothing is missing.

Retention periods side by side

How long that really is from the date of a sale

The sole trader rule sounds like five years, but it counts from a filing deadline that is already nearly ten months after the tax year ends. An invoice from April 2025, in the 2025 to 2026 tax year, has a filing deadline of 31 January 2027, so it must be kept until at least 31 January 2032: almost seven years after the sale.

If you are also VAT registered, the VAT six-year rule applies to the same records; follow whichever runs longer.

What counts as a business record

Invoices are only part of the picture. GOV.UK lists records of all sales and income, all business expenses, and, for VAT-registered businesses, VAT records. In practice, keep:

• sales invoices, credit notes and any statements of account you send
• purchase invoices and receipts for every expense you claim
• bank statements for any account used for the business
• records of cash taken, if you take cash
• payment confirmations and remittance advices
• CIS payment and deduction statements, if you work in construction
• contracts, quotes and purchase orders where they explain a transaction

Why HMRC cares about invoices years later

HMRC can check a return after it is filed, and in some circumstances go back further than the normal window, for example where tax was underpaid through carelessness. When it does, your invoices are the primary evidence of your income, and your purchase invoices and receipts the evidence of your expenses. A complete set, with an unbroken invoice number sequence, lets you answer questions quickly and shows the figures on your return were right. Missing records leave HMRC to estimate, and estimates rarely favour the taxpayer. Failing to keep adequate records can also lead to a penalty.

Invoices matter outside tax too. Lenders ask for proof of self-employed income, often two or three years of accounts backed by records. A customer who disputes an old invoice, or an insurer handling a claim, will want the paperwork. And if you sell the business, a buyer will want to see its trading history.

Records for invoices you receive

The same periods apply to purchase invoices and receipts. They support every expense you claim, and for VAT-registered businesses they support every VAT reclaim: without a valid VAT invoice, input tax generally cannot be reclaimed. If you use a receipt scanning app, check that it keeps the full image, not only the figures it extracted. The guide on what a UK invoice must include explains what a valid supplier invoice should show.

Storing records safely

Digital records are easier to keep complete and to back up. Scan paper invoices and receipts clearly, both sides where needed, name the files consistently and store them by tax year. Keep a backup in a second place. For Making Tax Digital, your records must be kept digitally in compatible software, so storing invoices there keeps everything in one place.

When it is safe to delete

Delete a year's records only when all of these are true: the minimum period for every rule that applies has passed, no HMRC enquiry or compliance check is open, the records do not relate to an asset you still own, and no dispute or claim involving them is ongoing. When in doubt, keep them; storing a few megabytes of scans costs almost nothing.

Common questions

Do I need to keep the original paper receipt after scanning it? A complete, readable digital copy is generally acceptable. Make sure the scan captures everything, including any information on the back.

What about emails that contain invoices? Save the invoice itself into your records, not just the email; inboxes get cleared and accounts closed.

Do cancelled invoices need keeping? Yes. Keep the cancelled invoice and its credit note together; they explain your numbering and your income. See how to cancel an invoice.

Does TapTax keep my invoices? Invoices you create and send in TapTax are stored in your account with the rest of your income records.

Related guides

Good record keeping starts with good invoices. See how to write an invoice for the layout, invoice numbering for a sequence that proves nothing is missing, and how to invoice as a sole trader for how invoices feed your tax return. The sole trader tax calculator turns the income your records show into an estimated bill, which is a good reason to keep those records complete from the first invoice onwards.

The simplest rule of all: keep every invoice, sent or received, digitally and backed up, for seven years. It covers every period on this page with room to spare.