Business owners must keep proper records. This legal obligation cannot be fulfilled retrospectively.
At all times
The Supreme Court It holds, in fact, that the obligation to keep records means that the information relevant to the levying of taxes must be clearly evident from the records at all times. This requires the records to be updated regularly. If the business owner fails to do so, this cannot be rectified retrospectively.
You can find the record-keeping obligation in Section 52 of the General Tax Act. The records must be organised in such a way that the Tax and Customs Administration can audit them within a reasonable period of time.
Reversal of burden of proof
Failure to comply with the record-keeping obligation results in a reversal of the burden of proof. This means that the business owner must demonstrate that a reasonable estimate of their income made by the Tax and Customs Administration is incorrect.