Duty to maintain accounting records

(1) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any other enactment, every entity shall, in addition to any records required to be kept or maintained under any other enactment, keep its accounting records within Belize at its registered office or, as the case may be, at the office of its registered agent in Belize, or at such other place within or Accounting Records (Maintenance) [CAP. 261:01 5 outside Belize as may be determined by its directors or other competent persons, provided that where the accounting records of an entity are kept outside Belize, such entity shall provide its registered agent in Belize, with a written record of the physical address of the place(s) where the accounting records are kept and notify the registered agent of any change thereto within fourteen (14) days. (2) It shall be the duty of the registered agent to obtain accounting records from wherever they are kept and provide the same to the competent authority in Belize upon request within the time specified in such request. (3) Where a registered agent fails to comply with sub- section (2), the sanctions contained in section 7 shall apply. (4) Without prejudice to subsection (3), where the failure to comply with subsection (2) above is committed by an IFS Practitioner as defined in section 2 of the International Financial Services Commission Act, or a service provider as defined in regulation 2 of the Trust and Company Service Providers (Best Practices) Regulations, such failure shall constitute professional misconduct within the meaning of regulation 33 of the International Financial Services Practitioners (Code of Conduct) Regulations and may be dealt with under those Regulations. (5) In all cases where a default is made in complying with sub-section (2), the entity concerned shall be struck off the relevant Register, provided that if the default is rectified within a reasonable time, the entity may be restored to the Register. (6) For the purpose of this section, the term “registered agent” includes a trust agent or secretary of the entity concerned, as the case may be. (7) In this section, the term “competent authority” means the Minister of Finance or the Financial Secretary. 6