"Kitne register banane padenge?" is usually asked after a notice arrives. Three different laws answer it — the Income Tax Act, the Companies Act and GST — each with its own list, thresholds and retention clocks, and they overlap without merging. Here is the consolidated map of what an Indian business must actually maintain, in what form, for how long, and what it costs to skip.
Income Tax: Section 44AA thresholds
- Specified professionals (legal, medical, engineering, accountancy, etc.): prescribed books (cash book, journal, ledger, bill copies) once gross receipts exceed ₹1.5 lakh (higher trigger for newer notifications) — with extra registers for doctors
- Other businesses/professions: 'such books as enable computation' once income exceeds ₹2.5 lakh or turnover exceeds ₹25 lakh (₹1.2 lakh/₹10 lakh for entities other than individuals/HUF)
- Presumptive filers (44AD/44ADA) within limits: exempt from books — the scheme's core benefit
- Retention: six years from the relevant assessment year's end; reopened assessments can effectively extend this
Companies Act: the statutory layer for companies and LLPs
Every company must keep books giving a true and fair view on accrual basis and double-entry — at the registered office (or another office notified to ROC), for eight financial years. Since the audit-trail rules, companies must use accounting software with an un-disableable edit log — auditors now report on this specifically. Add the statutory registers (members, directors, charges, related-party contracts), minutes and resolutions: separate from 'accounts' but demanded in the same inspections. LLPs carry a parallel, lighter obligation under the LLP Act (books on cash or accrual basis, eight-year retention).
GST: the record-keeping most businesses underestimate
- Production/manufacture accounts, inward and outward supplies, stock records item-wise, ITC availed, output tax payable and paid — per Section 35 and Rule 56
- Additional site-wise records where you operate from multiple places (each must be declared)
- Stock registers matter most in practice: physical-versus-book stock is the first thing an inspection counts
- Retention: 72 months from the annual return due date — longer where appeals/proceedings pend
You don't keep three parallel sets — you keep one good accounting system whose outputs satisfy all three laws: double-entry ledgers with audit trail (Companies Act), computation-grade detail (Income Tax), and invoice-level sales/purchase/stock registers (GST). Design once, comply thrice.
Digital books: allowed, with conditions
All three regimes accept electronic books. Conditions that matter: companies' software needs the audit-trail feature enabled all year; GST electronic records should be authenticated and producible on demand; and backups are your problem — 'the laptop crashed' has never impressed an assessing officer. Practical standard: cloud or backed-up accounting software, monthly locked periods, and PDF archives of key registers at year-end. If servers are outside India, companies must keep India-accessible copies and notify as required.
What skipping it costs
Income Tax: ₹25,000 penalty under 271A for failure to maintain, plus the far larger practical cost — best-judgment assessment, where the officer estimates your income and you lack the records to rebut. GST: penalties under Section 125/122, plus stock-record gaps converting into alleged suppression with tax, interest and penalty. Companies Act: fines on company and officers, and audit qualifications that follow the company into every bank file. The cheapest compliance in Indian business is a bookkeeper and working software; the costliest is reconstructing three years of accounts during a proceeding.
How Aidwish helps
Aidwish sets up the single-system, three-law compliance stack — software selection with audit trail, register templates, retention and backup SOPs — and runs periodic book-health checks so records exist before anyone asks for them.