Keeping records offshore

With the increasing number of taxpayers using cloud computing services, Inland Revenue has published a standard practice statement SPS 13/01: Retention of business records in electronic format, application to store records offshore and application to keep records in Māori.

The SPS is a guide to keeping business records in electronic format and sets out Inland Revenue's practice when considering an application to store business records offshore.

The amendments to section 22 of the Tax Administration Act 1994 allow the Commissioner to authorise:

• a taxpayer to store records outside New Zealand, or
• a business such as a cloud service provider to store clients' information in electronic format in a place outside New Zealand.

These amendments apply to businesses providing online accounting packages, data storage facilities or email services to clients whose business records are stored in offshore data centres.

The storage provider for these individual taxpayers can apply to Inland Revenue for approval for this.

If you want to make an application to store records offshore via your cloud provider, contact us.

For taxpayers using an approved third party these rules don't apply.