Tax authorities throughout the world want organizations to maintain records, regardless of form or media, that are true and accurate, legible, accessible, and ......... for as long as they are needed for tax purposes.

However, electronic records ......... certain risks not generally encountered with manual, paper-based recordkeeping.

In Draft Taxation Ruling 97/D4, the Australian Tax Office notes that electronic tax records (i.e., those required to compute a corporation's tax liability and to ......... that liability to the government during tax audits) are subject to destruction, tampering and obsolescence.

Unauthorized tampering may ......... their integrity as true and accurate records.

DTR 97/D4 sets forth ......... prescribing the characteristics of electronic recordkeeping systems required to make computerized accounting systems sufficient for tax purposes.

Records processed and kept electronically must be in a form which ATO staff can access and understand in order to ......... a company's tax liability.

Businesses operating computerized accounting systems must have ......... adequate controls to safeguard the security and integrity of the records processed and retained in such systems.

The level of controls must be sufficient to ......... that the records retained in the computer system are secure and accurate.

The ruling provides that any tax records using this technology must be stored for the ......... period of five years.

In the new tax ruling, the ATO's ......... is that the general principles governing records processed and kept in an EDI (electronic data interchange) environment are the same as those for a normal computerized accounting system.