Statutory records and the right to appeal a notice

Statutory records are the information and documents a person is legally required to keep and preserve under the Taxes Acts or any other law relating to a tax, as defined in paragraph 62 of Schedule 36 to Finance Act 2008. Because the law already obliges you to keep them for HMRC’s benefit, you cannot appeal against a requirement in a taxpayer notice or third party notice to produce them. The definition has edges, though: non business records only qualify once the tax period has ended, and records stop qualifying when their retention period runs out.

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What counts as a statutory record?

Paragraph 62(1) says information or a document forms part of a person’s statutory records if the person is required to keep and preserve it under or by virtue of the Taxes Acts or any other enactment relating to a tax. Paragraph 58 defines the Taxes Acts as the Taxes Management Act 1970, the Tax Acts, and the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 and other capital gains tax law. The phrase any other enactment relating to a tax brings in VAT and PAYE record keeping rules as well.

The main sources of record keeping duties are:

Self Assessment: section 12B TMA 1970 requires anyone who may be asked to file a personal, trustee or partnership return to keep the records needed to make a correct and complete return. For a trade, profession or business, these include all amounts received and spent and what they relate to, and for a trade dealing in goods, all sales and purchases.
Corporation tax: paragraph 21 of Schedule 18 to Finance Act 1998 imposes the same duty on companies, including records of all receipts and expenses and, for trading in goods, all sales and purchases.
VAT: paragraph 6 of Schedule 11 to the Value Added Tax Act 1994 requires taxable persons to keep the records required by regulations.
PAYE: regulation 97 of the Income Tax (PAYE) Regulations 2003 requires employers to keep wages sheets, deductions working sheets and other records about the calculation of PAYE income, relevant payments and deductions, together with documents behind the expenses and benefits information they report.

Our guide to accounting records requirements covers what businesses should keep day to day.

When does a record become a statutory record?

Timing depends on whether the record relates to a business. HMRC’s guidance at CH21700 says business and VAT records that must be kept for tax purposes become statutory records as soon as they are created, so current records can be inspected where inspection is justified. Paragraph 62(2) treats other records differently: where a record required under the Taxes Acts does not relate to a business, and is not also required by another tax enactment, it only becomes a statutory record once the chargeable period it relates to has ended.

So a sole trader’s sales invoices for the current year are statutory records from the day they are raised, but an employee’s evidence of savings interest for the current tax year is not a statutory record until the year ends on 5 April. The distinction feeds through to inspections: paragraph 10 defines business documents, which HMRC can inspect on business premises, as documents relating to a business that form part of any person’s statutory records. See HMRC inspection of business premises.

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When does a record stop being a statutory record?

Paragraph 62(3) says information and documents cease to be statutory records when the period for which the relevant law requires them to be preserved has expired. The main periods are:

Records	Must be preserved until	Source
Self Assessment, business (alone or in partnership)	Fifth anniversary of the 31 January following the tax year	Section 12B(2)(a) TMA 1970
Self Assessment, other	First anniversary of the 31 January following the tax year	Section 12B(2)(b) TMA 1970
Company tax return	Sixth anniversary of the end of the period	FA 1998 Sch 18 para 21(2A)
VAT	Period specified by HMRC, not exceeding six years	VATA 1994 Sch 11 para 6(3)
PAYE	Not less than three years after the end of the tax year	PAYE Regulations 2003 reg 97

For Self Assessment and company returns, the period is extended where a return is required by a notice given before the normal date: records must then be kept until any enquiry is completed or, if there is none, until HMRC can no longer open one (section 12B(1)(b) and paragraph 21(3) of Schedule 18). Both provisions also allow HMRC to specify an earlier day in writing.

Why can you not appeal against a notice asking for them?

Paragraph 29(2) removes the taxpayer’s right of appeal against a requirement in a taxpayer notice to provide information or produce a document that forms part of the taxpayer’s statutory records. Paragraph 30(2) does the same for a third party notice that asks for the taxpayer’s statutory records. HMRC’s factsheet CC/FS2 explains that statutory records are the records tax laws say a person must keep; the logic is that a person obliged by law to keep a record for tax purposes can have no good reason to refuse to show it to HMRC.

CH24360 adds that there is no appeal against a taxpayer notice that refers to any person’s statutory records relating only to the supply of goods or services or the importation of goods in the course of a business. CH23080 says a third party notice limited to that kind of record needs neither the taxpayer’s agreement nor tribunal approval, which lets HMRC ask a supplier or customer for invoices directly.

The lack of appeal is requirement by requirement, not notice by notice. CH24320 says that where you appeal against some requirements, you must still comply with the rest, including any requirement to produce statutory records. For appeals against the remaining items, see appealing an HMRC information notice.

What limits still apply to a request for statutory records?

No appeal does not mean no limits. The notice must still be one HMRC is entitled to give: the records must be reasonably required to check the tax position or collect a tax debt (paragraph 1), a document originating wholly more than six years before the notice needs an authorised officer’s agreement (paragraph 20), and once an income tax, capital gains tax or corporation tax return has been filed paragraph 21 restricts taxpayer notices for that period (see information notices once the enquiry window has closed). Before a return is filed the position is different, as explained in information notices before a return is filed.

What if you disagree that something is a statutory record?

CH21700 tells officers to try to resolve the dispute by agreement. If that fails, the tribunal decides it on an appeal against the notice where there is an appeal right, or on an appeal against a penalty charged for not complying where there is not. A challenge can also be made by judicial review. CH223400 notes that HMRC may seek tribunal approval of a notice to avoid this kind of dispute, because the tribunal approves on the basis that the material is reasonably required whether or not it is a statutory record.

Refusing to produce something you believe is not a statutory record therefore carries risk: if you are wrong, the £300 penalty under paragraph 39 and daily penalties under paragraph 40 follow. Failing to keep the records in the first place is a separate breach; see HMRC record keeping penalties.

How might this work in practice?

Illustration only. During an enquiry into a self employed photographer’s 2024 to 2025 return, HMRC sends a taxpayer notice for: the business bank statements and sales invoices for 2024 to 2025; statements for a personal credit card used only for private spending in the same year; and the business purchase invoices for 2017 to 2018. The bank statements and sales invoices are statutory records, so they must be produced with no appeal. The credit card statements are not records the photographer was required to keep, so that item can be appealed if it is not reasonably required. The 2017 to 2018 invoices have passed the fifth anniversary of 31 January 2019 and no enquiry into that year was ever opened, so they are no longer statutory records, and as documents originating more than six years before the notice they also needed an authorised officer’s agreement.

What mistakes do people make?

Appealing against the whole notice and producing nothing, when the statutory records had to be produced regardless.
Assuming every document the officer wants is a statutory record. Only records the law requires you to keep qualify.
Forgetting the end of period rule for non business records.
Ignoring the retention extension when an enquiry is open; records you could otherwise discard remain statutory records.

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Reviewed by Christine Anderson, Broker, Solar Protect. Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Part of Accountapedia, the Solar Protect guide to UK tax and accounting. This page is general information, not personalised advice.