How long do I have to keep invoices and job records as a tradesperson? Five years for tax, six for VAT, one job worked through

A self-employed tradesperson must keep business records for at least 5 years after the 31 January deadline for that tax year's return. If you are registered for VAT, the VAT records must be kept for at least 6 years. Other paperwork from the same job has shorter periods, and one reason to keep the job file has a longer one.

We read each rule on its official page on 1 October 2026. The time limits for court claims further down are those for England and Wales.

The periods side by side

Two of these have conditions attached. If you send a tax return more than 4 years after its deadline, GOV.UK says to keep the records for 15 months after you send it. A limited company keeps records longer than 6 years if they cover something it expects to last longer, such as equipment or machinery, if it sent its Company Tax Return late, or if HMRC has started a compliance check.

What counts as a record

For a sole trader GOV.UK lists all sales and income, all business expenses, VAT records if you are registered and PAYE records if you employ people. As proof it names receipts for goods and stock, bank statements, sales invoices and bank slips.

A CIS contractor must also keep the gross amount of each payment invoiced by subcontractors, the deductions made, and the cost of materials where a deduction was made, all excluding VAT. Our CIS checklist for contractors shows where those figures come from.

If you are in Making Tax Digital the records are kept in software, and our guide to Making Tax Digital for sole-trader trades covers who is in. The periods above do not change.

What it costs to have nothing to show

• CIS: you could be fined up to £3,000 if you cannot show your CIS records when HMRC asks.
• Payroll: if you do not keep full records, HMRC may estimate what you owe and charge a penalty of up to £3,000.
• Limited company: you can be fined £3,000 by HMRC or disqualified as a director if you do not keep accounting records.

If records are lost, stolen or destroyed and cannot be replaced, GOV.UK says to do your best to provide figures and to tell HMRC on the return whether they are estimated or provisional.

The other clock: how long a claim can be brought

Section 5 of the Limitation Act 1980 says an action founded on simple contract cannot be brought more than six years after the date the cause of action arose. That runs both ways. You have six years to claim an unpaid invoice, and a customer has six years to claim that you broke the contract.

So the quote, the customer's acceptance, the agreed changes, the photos and the certificate are worth keeping for six years as well, even though no tax rule asks for most of them. Our job paperwork checklist lists what a full job file holds.

Work on homes can have a longer tail. Section 4B of the same Act gives 15 years for claims under sections 1 and 2A of the Defective Premises Act 1972, which cover work on dwellings and whether the home is fit to live in when the work is done. A firm that builds, converts or extends homes has a reason to keep those job files for 15 years.

One job, dated

A VAT-registered sole-trader electrician finishes a kitchen rewire and invoices it on 14 November 2025, with payment due on 28 November 2025. A subcontractor helped and was paid under CIS. The old cable and fittings went to a transfer station the same day.

The job falls in the 2025 to 2026 tax year, which ends on 5 April 2026. The return for that year is due by 31 January 2027.

The latest of the five dates is 31 January 2032. Five separate dates for one job is more than anyone will track, so use one rule: keep everything from a tax year until six years after that tax year ends. For 2025 to 2026 that is 5 April 2032, which is later than every date in the table.

Where the pile comes from

Most of the box is made as the job goes along. A numbered invoice with the right details on it is the record HMRC and a court both want, and our invoice template for electricians and builders has them. GOV.UK says a waste transfer note can be a paper or an electronic copy.

One kind of record has no set period. Since 1 October 2008 there has been no legal duty to keep out-of-date employers' liability certificates, but the Health and Safety Executive strongly advises keeping a complete record, because some diseases appear decades after the work that caused them. Our guide on which insurance a tradesperson has to have covers that policy.

This is general information, not tax or legal advice. If HMRC has opened a check, or a customer has written to you about a claim, keep everything and speak to your accountant or a solicitor.