Keeping records
Keeping records for self employed individuals
If you’re self employed, you are legally obliged to keep records of your business transactions.
You must keep these records for at least five years and ten months after the end of the tax year to which the records relate (so, you can get rid of your 2003-04 records on 6th February 2010).
Self employed individuals aren’t required to complete a balance sheet (a statement of your assets, liabilities and equity) although it’s a useful management tool to have.
This means that, at the most basic level, you can simply keep a record of your income and expenditure as detailed on our self employment article.
