Guidance

Sending us electronic records — CC/FS22

Updated 22 October 2021

We have given you this factsheet because we want you to send us some of your electronic records so that we can examine them as part of our compliance check.

We have also given you one of our general information factsheets. You should read that factsheet carefully, as it contains important information about giving us information and documents.

You can read the other factsheets in our compliance checks series.

If you need help

If you have any health or personal circumstances that may make it difficult for you to deal with this check, please tell the officer that’s contacted you. We’ll help you in whatever way we can. For more details, read compliance checks: information notices — CC/FS2.

You can also ask someone else to deal with us on your behalf, for example, a professional adviser, friend or relative. We may however still need to talk or write to you directly about some things. If we need to write to you, we’ll send a copy to the person you’ve asked us to deal with. If we need to talk to you, they can be with you when we do, if you prefer.

What we mean by ‘electronic records’

Electronic records consist of information or documents that are made or stored on any electronic device or system — whether it is a commercial system or a custom made one. This includes records made or stored:

• on any type of computer, electronic cash register, or till
• using accounting software, electronic databases, or spreadsheets

We will not ask you to convert your paper records into electronic format just so that you can send them to us electronically.

The benefits of sending us your electronic records

It will be quicker and easier for us to examine your electronic records in our office. This will normally mean that we will be able to tell you sooner if we need anything else from you to carry out our check, or if we find anything wrong. It will also save you time and money because you will not have to print copies of all the records that we need to see.

Also, if we need to visit your premises or meet you to discuss our findings as part of our check, this should take less time and will allow you to get on with running your business.

If you do not want to give us your records

We will only ask for records that we need to help us carry out the compliance check. When we ask for records, we will explain what we need and why we need them.

We will normally ask you to send us the records voluntarily and we’ll welcome any help that you give us. If you do not send the records voluntarily, then we may give you an information notice, which is a document that legally requires you to give us what we ask for, so that we can check your tax position. This can include electronic records. To find out more about information notices, read compliance checks: information notices — CC/FS2.

Data handling specialists

Your electronic records will normally be examined by one of our data handling specialists. They are specially trained to help examine electronic records during a compliance check.

It will normally be the data handling specialist who contacts you to discuss your electronic records and systems. However, the officer dealing with the compliance check will have overall responsibility for the compliance check.

Data security

Your records will be safe with us and we will keep them confidential at all times. We only ever use secure and encrypted systems to transport and store your data.

How to send the records to us

There are several ways you can send us your electronic records. The data handling specialist or the person dealing with the compliance check will tell you more about this when they contact you.

Please do not send us any electronic records until you have agreed with us how you will send them.

Our privacy notice

Our privacy notice sets out the standards that you can expect from us when we ask for information or hold information about you.