Before we delve into the accounting obligations of a trader, you need to know who a trader is in the context of Cameroon. A trader is an institution or someone whose regular occupation is carrying out transactions. It maybe a commercial company, corporate body or someone. You can checkout a previous post about who a trader is in the context of Cameroon.

Accounting Obligations of a Trader – OHADA

According to the OHADA Uniform Act Relating to General Commercial Law, every natural person, commercial company or corporate body who is a trader must keep book where commercial transactions are recorded daily. They are also obliged to keep an inventory book, a general ledger with a general balance summary.

The traders have the obligation to preserve accounting and other documents for a period of ten years from the date of the last record. This is because the taxpayers are bound to give at the request of the tax authorities all mandatory accounting documents or supplementary records where necessary. This is usually done in order to establish whether the information recorded by the trader in the tax return is genuine.

This means the trader is obliged to present to the tax authority when requested the following accounting documents:

• Internal Audit procedures
• General Ledger
• Accounting Procedures
• Data Processing Procedures
• Organization Special Ledger

What the tax law says about accounting documents

It is worthy to not that only tax officers with at least the rank of an inspector is supposed to control the accounts of taxpayers who are oblige to keep these accounting documents during spot-checks. Make sure the tax officer is carrying a professional card and a copy of the audit notice issued.

All businesses regardless of their legal form shall be subject to controls by employees of the Directorate of Taxation and Inspector-Controllers. Traders are bound to give access to these officers to their books of records, accounting documents, reports, minutes and correspondence at any time when the need arises. However, the taxpayer should be informed of this before hand.

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Source: Section 485, M. 4, 5, 6, 11, Uniform Act Relating to General Commercial Law – Chapter 3