Every retailer maintaining a place of business in this State under this Article and every taxpayer making direct tax payments to the Department under this Article shall keep books, records, papers and other documents which are adequate to reflect the information required by Sections 6 and 7 of this Article to be reported to the Department by filing timely returns with the Department. The Department may adopt rules that establish requirements, including record forms and formats, for records required to be kept and maintained by taxpayers. For purposes of this Section, "records" means all data maintained by the taxpayer, including data on paper, microfilm, microfiche or any type of machine-sensible data compilation. All books and records and other papers and documents required by this Article to be kept shall be kept in the English language and shall, at all times during business hours of the day, be subject to inspection by the Department or its duly authorized agents and employees.
The Department may, upon written authorization of the Director, destroy any returns or records, papers or memoranda pertaining to such returns upon the expiration of any period covered by such returns with respect to which the Department is authorized to establish liability.
35 ILCS 630/11