Financial Record Retention: How Long, and In What Form

When an old file is reopened for assessment, the difference between a company with a real archive and one without shows up in the first hour. This is for owners and accountants who need a clear answer on how long each class of financial record must be kept, in what form, and how to structure the archive so it holds up in a tax assessment, an insurance inspection or a legal dispute.

Why this is not clerical work

In a tax defence, an expense whose evidence cannot be produced is treated the same as an expense that never happened. The documentation requirement behind deductible expenses is not a formality — it is the load-bearing test. In the files I have handled, most disallowances did not come from missing documents; they came from documents that could not be found in the time available. A voucher lost in ten unlabelled boxes does not exist.

The second reason is staff turnover: an accountant who carries the filing logic in their head takes half the company's financial memory with them when they leave.

Retention periods by document class

The general rule comes from the Commercial Code, which requires commercial books and correspondence to be kept for ten years from the end of each year. Tax practice adds a second condition: the records of a year must remain available until that year's file is final. Together they give a simple policy — ten years as the minimum, longer for specific groups.

Originals, scans and paper that dies

Documents whose original carries independent legal weight — cheques, promissory notes, guarantees, notarised contracts, title deeds, sealed books — belong in a safe or bank deposit box, separate from routine files. Where a clean, legible image suffices — invoices, bills, goods receipts, statements, correspondence — a structured electronic archive beats a paper warehouse. Thermal receipts from tills and card terminals simply fade; scan them in the month they arise.

An archive structure that works

Organise by fiscal year → month → voucher number, because that is how an assessment moves: from the accounting voucher outward to its attachments. Name files on a fixed pattern such as year-month-voucher-short description, so full-text search actually returns something.

Keep long-lived subject files in parallel rather than inside the yearly structure: contracts, personnel records, title deeds, fixed asset registers, and one folder per year for the tax file itself.

Routine obligations turn archiving into a monthly rhythm rather than a year-end scramble. Filing an e-invoice does not replace keeping the underlying sales documentation — see the taxpayer system guide. Quarterly transaction reports must reconcile to that quarter's invoices, and the way the statutory books are written, covered in the statutory books guide, shapes the archive around them.

Making an electronic archive defensible

1. Legibility — at least 300 dpi, full page, no cropped edges.
2. Integrity — all pages and attachments of one voucher in a single file.
3. Consistent naming — the same pattern across every year.
4. Access control — deletion rights for one named person; everyone else reads and adds.
5. Three-layer backup — local server, separate medium, and one copy off site.
6. Restore testing — once a year, restore a random file from backup and confirm it opens.

Point six matters more than it sounds. A backup that has never been tested is an assumption, not an asset. Access separation is also part of internal control, not just an IT setting.

Disposal, step by step

1. Extract the list of records whose retention period has expired.
2. Confirm the tax status of each year; non-final years come off the list.
3. Check for open legal, labour or insurance matters.
4. Prepare the final list with title, year, box count and location.
5. Obtain written approval from the finance manager and managing director.
6. Destroy securely — shredding is essential for anything with personnel or banking data.
7. Record a disposal minute signed by at least two people and file it permanently.

Recurring mistakes

Storing records only in the accountant's personal folders. Filing a purchase invoice without the matching goods receipt and payment record — the three belong together. Relying on software output instead of attachments; a system report is not supporting evidence. Keeping only the Word file of a contract rather than the signed copy.

Key takeaways

• Treat ten years from each fiscal year end as the floor, and keep personnel, fixed asset and open-dispute records longer.
• Keep documents with independent legal weight — cheques, notes, deeds — physical and secured; scans are fine for the rest.
• Structure the archive by fiscal year and voucher number so it follows the path of an assessment.
• Scan thermal receipts in the month they occur; they will not survive to the audit.
• Dispose only with a list, written approval and a signed minute, and never for a year that is still open.