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Every company must ensure that specific records and documents are properly maintained, as mandated by law.
Which records and documents must be kept and for how long?
The commercial and tax regulations in accordance with § 257 (4) HGB and § 147 AO are decisive in determining which company documents must be retained and which can be discarded.
The following must be kept for 10 years:
Trading books, inventories, opening balance sheets, annual financial statements, individual financial statements in accordance with § 325 (2a) HGB, management reports, consolidated financial statements, group management reports and the work instructions and other organizational documents required to understand them, as well as supporting documents for entries in the books to be kept by him in accordance with § 238 (1) HGB (accounting documents). As a result, documents that were prepared on or before December 31, 2012 can be disposed of.
They must be kept for 6 years:
Received or sent commercial/business letters that were received or sent by 12/31/2016 or earlier.
The ten-year or six-year storage or retention period also applies to digital records.
For the special requirements here, please refer to Appendix 64 of the Official AO Manual, in which the "Principles for the proper keeping and storage of books, records and documents in electronic form and for data access" (Anhang 64 des Amtlichen AO-Handbuches) are published.
The ten-year or six-year storage or retention period also applies to digital records.
For the special requirements here, please refer to Appendix 64 of the Official AO Manual, in which the "Principles for the proper keeping and storage of books, records and documents in electronic form and for data access" (Anhang 64 des Amtlichen AO-Handbuches) are published.
Since 2020, the following applies: After a change of the data processing system or data outsourcing, it is sufficient for taxpayers to keep only one data carrier with the stored tax documents five years after a system change or data outsourcing.
Please note further
Not all documents can be easily disposed of after the expiration of the actual retention period, because (example year 2023):
Retention periods usually start at the end of the calendar year in which, for example, the last entry in the books was made, the inventory was taken, the balance sheet was established, the commercial and business letters were received or sent, or the booking document was created, the records were made, or the other documents were created. For example, in the case of the 2013 year-end closing, which was submitted to the tax office in 2014, the retention period ends only on December 31, 2024.
If there is currently a tax audit, a value-added tax or income tax audit, or if the tax office has announced a tax audit in writing by December 31, 2023, in which documents from previous years are still relevant, they must be retained beyond the 10-year period.
The 10-year retention period also applies only on the condition that all tax assessments are final.
For contracts, the expiration of the period starts at the end of the year in which the contract ends. Additionally, it is advisable to keep important contract documents for a longer period regardless of expired retention periods to avoid difficulties in providing evidence, for example, in the case of legal proceedings.
Special Regulations
Special regulations pertain, for example, to recording and storage obligations in connection with the Minimum Wage Act (Mindestlohngesetz). For verification purposes, these records must be kept for at least two years.
If a personal account is used for booking business income, it becomes a business account subject to the storage obligations according to § 147 para. 1 nos. 4 and 5 AO (German Fiscal Code). Consequently, these accounts must also be retained for ten years.
In addition, there are other deadlines beyond the commercial and tax regulations, such as those specified by the Working Hours Act, due to warranty claims, or under social security law.
Important!
As with all tax-related matters: If there is uncertainty about whether certain receipts/documents can be discarded, it is essential to seek professional advice because: Missing receipts can lead to difficulties with the tax office! In the worst case, this can result in high fines or even imprisonment.
Tip
Comprehensive information about retention periods, including a listing of individual items, can be found, for example, on the pages of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK) for Neubrandenburg in eastern Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (IHK zu Neubrandenburg für das östliche M-V).
2023-11-28
