In short: Keep your tax records for at least four years from the latest of the period end, the return filing date and any assessment notice, and longer if there is a dispute. Supplier invoices are what prove the tax you deduct, so photograph them the day they arrive.
In this guide
When an audit notice arrives, the auditor does not ask about your intentions. They ask for your paperwork. A lost supplier invoice can mean tax you cannot deduct, and a day of sales with no record can mean an assessment you disagree with. This guide covers what Jordan's General Sales Tax Law and Income Tax Law say about keeping records, how long and from when, and a practical way to organise them. This is general information, not tax advice. Your accountant holds the exact list for your shop.
What the law says about how long
The General Sales Tax Law requires a taxpayer to keep the records and documents needed to work out the tax they owe, and to hold on to them for four years. The clock does not start on the invoice date. It starts from the latest of: the end of the tax period the records belong to, the date the return was filed, or the date you were notified of an assessment decision.
If there is a dispute over the tax or related penalties, you keep the records until it is settled or a final court ruling is issued, even if that runs past four years. The Income Tax Law has a similar four-year rule for the records income tax relies on.
If your shop is not registered for sales tax, the director can still require an unregistered seller to issue invoices, keep proper records, and hold them for five years after the end of the financial year they belong to.
Working out the period: an example
Say one of your tax periods ended on 30 June 2026 and you filed its return in July 2026. The later of the two is July 2026, so you keep that period's records until at least July 2030. If you are later notified of an assessment decision for the same period, the four years run from that notification.
So the practical rule is simple: do not track an expiry date for every piece of paper. Keep everything longer than the minimum, and ask your accountant before destroying any file, because laws other than the tax laws may set different periods for some documents.
What to keep: a shop checklist
- Every sales invoice, including the e-invoices sent to JoFotara.
- Return invoices, linked to the originals.
- Purchase invoices from suppliers. They prove the tax you paid and want to deduct.
- Import and customs clearance documents, if you import.
- The tax returns you filed, and receipts for tax paid.
- Bank statements and card terminal settlements.
- Daily cash-up or end-of-shift reports.
- Stock and stocktake records, and the value of stock at the end of each period.
- Customer debts, and the paperwork for any debt that turned bad.
- Your lease and any large business expenses.
Why supplier invoices matter most
The law lets a registered seller deduct from the tax on sales the general tax they bore on purchases, tax already charged on sales that were returned, and tax on debts that turned bad, within the conditions. Every one of those deductions needs a document behind it.
Supplier invoices often arrive on thermal paper that fades. An invoice in a box under the counter that nobody can read a year later is tax you paid and cannot prove. Photograph each one the day it arrives and keep the original.
Paper or digital
The law asks for records kept to international accounting standards, and allows instructions that exempt certain categories of taxpayer from that, fully or partly. It also lets you keep records in English, provided you supply an Arabic translation if the department asks. Exactly what applies to a small shop, and whether a digital copy of every document is enough, are questions for your accountant.
Even though your e-invoices sit on the JoFotara portal, keep your own copy. The portal is the department's record. Yours is what you review, reconcile and hand to your accountant. And supplier invoices, stocktakes and cash-ups are not on the portal at all.
Archiving JoFotara invoices and matching them to your return
The sales invoices you sent to JoFotara sit under view invoices on the portal, and the portal guide shows how to export them to Excel. Use that at the end of each tax period: export the period's invoices and save the file in that period's folder, next to the sales and tax report from your cashier app.
Then match the two before the return is filed: the number of invoices, total sales, total tax and returns. An invoice in your app but not on the portal was never sent or was rejected. One on the portal but not in your app raises a question: who issued it? A gap fixed before the return is far easier than one found after it.
And do not make the portal your only archive. Keep your own copy, along with the supplier invoices that never pass through the portal at all.
A simple system you can start today
- One folder per tax period, every two months, holding the return, the payment receipt and the period's sales and tax report.
- A photo of every supplier invoice the day it arrives, with the original kept too.
- Backups in two places, not on a single device in the shop.
- A monthly check: the number and total of invoices in your cashier app against what is on the JoFotara portal.
- Destroy nothing until your accountant confirms the period has passed and nothing is in dispute.
How a cashier system helps, and how Ghalleh does it
A handwritten sales book gets lost and fills up with three people's handwriting. A cashier system writes the record itself with every sale. In Ghalleh every invoice is kept, each return stays linked to its invoice, you can search for any invoice when you need it, and invoices go to JoFotara with the QR. Your data lives on your account and syncs across your devices, so one broken device does not take your records with it.
You record supplier purchase invoices in Ghalleh, or photograph a supplier invoice or upload it as a PDF and Ghalleh reads its items, which updates your costs and what you owe each supplier. Each shift close is saved with who closed it and any cash difference, and the activity log keeps every large discount or refund and who made it. At the end of each period you send your accountant the sales and tax report as a PDF. Ghalleh is available now on Google Play, and the Windows version is on the download page, with a 14-day free trial with every feature and no card.
Common questions
How long do I need to keep invoices in Jordan?
Under the General Sales Tax Law, four years from the latest of: the end of the tax period, the date the return was filed, or notification of an assessment decision, and longer if there is a dispute. The Income Tax Law has a similar period. The laws are published on the Income and Sales Tax Department's site, istd.gov.jo. Ask your accountant before destroying any document.
Do I have to buy from a supplier registered on JoFotara?
This guide does not answer who is obliged to do what: that is for your accountant or the Income and Sales Tax Department. What you can do yourself is check a supplier's registration: the department's site has a page to verify registration in the national e-invoicing system, which asks only for the tax number, at es.istd.gov.jo/Query/FawtraQuery.aspx. You can also check the supplier's invoice itself by scanning its code in the Sanad app.
Are the invoices on the JoFotara portal enough?
Keep your own copy too. The portal holds the sales invoices you sent, but not supplier invoices, stocktakes, cash-ups or bank statements, and any of those can be requested in an audit.
Why keep supplier purchase invoices?
They prove the tax you bore on purchases. The law lets a registered seller deduct it within the conditions, and without the document you may not be able to, which means paying the tax twice.