VAT Records: What to Keep and for How Long

Oman's VAT Law says your VAT records must be kept for 10 years after the end of the year in which you filed the return, and for 15 years if they relate to real estate. That is longer than most laptops, most software subscriptions and some businesses last. Here is what belongs in your filing cabinet, how to work out your own 'keep until' date, and how to make sure your VAT records survive when your software does not.

The rule in one sentence

Article 70 of the Value Added Tax Law says you must keep tax invoices, accounting records and books, customs documents for imports and exports, and any other document related to the law, "in accordance with secure and reliable means". The clock is 10 years, counted from the end of the tax year in which the return was filed.

A tax year in the VAT Law is simply the calendar year, 1 January to 31 December. A tax invoice is the official VAT invoice you issue or receive, on paper or electronic. For invoices, books and customs papers related to real estate, the period stretches to 15 years.

What goes in the filing cabinet

The Executive Regulations of the VAT Law (Ministerial Decision 53/2021, Article 156) list the records a VAT-registered business must keep. In plain words, think of these as the drawers in your cabinet:

• A daily journal of your transactions, in date and number order, with the documents behind each one.
• A general ledger, with separate accounts for each type of taxable and exempt sale.
• Your stock count records, balance sheet and profit and loss statement.
• Every tax invoice and related document you issued, and every one you received from suppliers.
• Import, export, GCC trade and customs papers.
• Proof for any sale you charged at 0 percent VAT.
• Anything that shows why you treated a sale the way you did, plus any other record the Tax Authority specifies.

A simple way to organise it: one folder per tax period, and inside each folder four sub-folders. Sales, Purchases, Customs, and Return and Payment Proof. Paper or digital, the logic is the same.

Work out your keep-until date

Here is an example. Salim runs a small maintenance company in Ruwi and files VAT returns every calendar quarter (this is a composite example, not a real case). Returns are generally due within 30 days after a tax period ends, but assigned periods vary, so check your own on the Tax Authority portal.

Notice the surprise in the middle row. An invoice only two months newer must be kept a whole year longer, because its return is filed in the next calendar year. To redo this with your own documents:

1. Find the tax period the document belongs to.
2. Note the calendar year in which you filed that period's return.
3. Take 31 December of that year.
4. Add 10 years, or 15 if it relates to real estate.

Why your records must outlive your software

Picture Salim's history (again, an example). In 2021 he kept invoices in a spreadsheet on an old laptop. In 2023 he moved to a cloud accounting app. This October he is switching again. His 2021 VAT records still have to be kept until at least the end of 2031, long after that laptop and that app are gone. The duty sits with the business, not with the software company.

The Executive Regulations (Article 157) allow electronic records kept in a computer accounting system, as long as three conditions are met:

• The system does not allow later edits, deletions or additions to records, invoices and documents after the transaction is recorded.
• The electronic copy is clear and matches the original paper record.
• A user guide for the system can be shown to the Tax Authority on request.

Records can be in any language, but you must be able to provide them in Arabic if the Tax Authority asks (Article 158). And closing down does not end the duty. If your VAT registration is cancelled, Article 142 says you keep the records for 10 years from the date you were notified of the cancellation.

What happens when the cabinet is empty

For a planned inspection, the Executive Regulations require the Tax Authority to notify you at least 15 days ahead. There is an exception: it can inspect without notice if there are serious suspicions of tax evasion. During an inspection you generally have 3 days to provide the records requested (Article 170). Three days is not enough time to rescue data from a dead hard drive or a cancelled subscription.

Every supplier invoice is the evidence behind input VAT you deducted, meaning the VAT you paid on business purchases and took off your bill. Under Article 100 of the VAT Law, deliberately failing to keep proper records, or to keep tax invoices and documents for the required period, can lead to a fine of OMR 1,000 to OMR 10,000, imprisonment of 2 months to 1 year, or both.

What this means for you

• Treat every VAT document as a ten-year document from the day it is created.
• File by tax period, not by supplier or by month. That matches how the return and the clock work.
• Before you cancel any accounting app, export everything (invoices as PDF, ledgers as spreadsheets) and test that the files open.
• Keep at least two copies in two places, for example a cloud folder and an external drive kept at a different location.
• Flag anything to do with property separately, because its clock runs 15 years.

The bottom line

Your VAT records are a ten-year promise (fifteen for real estate) that does not end when you change software or close the business. Count from 31 December of the year you filed the return, file by tax period, and keep a copy you control. Do it once and the next inspection letter becomes a three-minute job, not a three-day panic.