How long must I keep my annual accounts and records?

The short answer

Seven years under the tax retention duty (art. 52 AWR). For data on immovable property, ten years apply because of the VAT adjustment period.

Basis: art. 52 AWR (General State Taxes Act) in conjunction with art. 2:10 DCC

Which period applies to your own archive?

The retention duty applies to the entire records: ledger, invoices, bank statements and the annual accounts themselves. Digital retention is permitted, provided the data remain legible and verifiable throughout the whole period.

Keep not only the signed pdf, but also the underlying data with which the amounts can be recalculated. A receivables balance of € 40.000, for example, comes with the open invoices and matchings; the total alone does not tell which customers still have to pay. Article 2:10(3) DCC provides seven years for the books and documents of the legal entity. For tax, seven years also applies in principle to basic data, with exceptions. Make an inventory of files, so that a software switch does not make supporting documents disappear.

When does the retention period start to run?

Besides the tax period, company law has its own retention duty for the books and documents of the legal entity (art. 2:10(3) DCC), also seven years.

The Belastingdienst does not always simply count seven years from the invoice date. A data item may first remain current for years, for example a running contract. Only then does the retention period for that item begin. For immovable property and rights to it, a period of ten years applies for VAT data. For some data within the one-stop-shop scheme, deviating periods also apply. An investment in a building of € 120.000 therefore calls for a different archive check than an ordinary office receipt. Assess the applicable period per type of data and document the choice.

Why is the KVK no replacement for your archive?

The KVK states that filed annual accounts can currently be requested up to seven years back, counted according to its publication rules. Your own statutory archive duty therefore remains important in its own right.

The KVK currently makes annual accounts available up to seven years back, counted under its own rules from the following calendar year. That public register also does not supply your complete records, correcting entries or invoices. For a tax audit or a discussion with a shareholder, therefore rely on your own legible archive. Test a restored backup: can you open the trial balance, ledger lines and attachments without the old software? Also keep the version that was actually adopted and the proof of filing. A file name with financial year and status prevents confusion between draft and final.

How do you set up an archive that is still legible in seven years?

Besides pdfs, also export open data formats for the ledger and trial balance, with account numbers and dates. A printout of a report shows, for example, € 30.000 of inventory, but without a stock count and journal lines that value cannot later be explained. Keep scans of purchase invoices with a recognisable file name and check that a backup can really be restored. Give a successor director access to the archive without needing personal accounts of a departed employee. Repeat that test at a software switch and keep the explanation used for the columns and sign convention.

Make an overview of data with a deviating period. A building bought in 2022 that is still in use in 2026 requires different tax retention attention than an ordinary travel receipt from 2022. Note when contracts lose their current significance; only after that does the retention period sometimes begin, as the Belastingdienst explains. Do not delete documents merely because a KVK copy can still be ordered. The public annual accounts do not contain full bookkeeping and may disappear after the current request period. Also keep the proof of which file was adopted by the board and which file arrived at the KVK.

Sources

• Belastingdienst: retaining records
• KVK: requesting annual accounts

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