Keeping receipts and GoBD: Documenting properly

In short: Business documents must be kept complete, traceable and unaltered; the GoBD regulate what correct digital storage and bookkeeping look like.

In more detail: The tax office can examine documents. Whoever documents properly spares themselves trouble and estimates. GoBD stands for the German principles for proper keeping and retention of books, records and documents in electronic form. This is general information and not legal or tax advice; rules and deadlines change, check them with the tax office, chamber or a tax adviser.

In Depth

What is kept

• Incoming and outgoing invoices, till receipts, receipts, bank statements.
• Contracts, quotes, business letters, emails with business content.
• Books, records (for example income-surplus statement), annual accounts, inventories.
• Documents on taxes and assets (logbook, asset register). Documents must be recorded genuine, complete, promptly (ideally immediately) and in order.

Retention periods (overview)

Typical periods are 10 years for books, annual accounts and certain documents, 8 years for accounting vouchers (after a change by the Bureaucracy Relief Act, formerly 10 years) and 6 years for commercial and business letters. The period begins at the end of the calendar year in which the document arose. Check the current periods with the tax office, chamber or tax adviser, as they may change.

Storing digitally

Paper receipts may be scanned and destroyed if the scan is legible, complete and unalterable and a documented procedure exists (procedural documentation). Important: audit-proof archiving (no later change, timestamp/log), findability (file names, folder structure), data backup (3-2-1) and access for the tax audit. Email invoices and PDFs must be archived in their original format; a printout is not enough. E-invoices (structured formats such as XRechnung/ZUGFeRD) are gradually becoming mandatory in B2B.

Practice

1. Record immediately, photograph/scan and name receipts (2026-03-14_Material_Store_24.90.pdf).
2. One system: folder per year and month, or accounting/receipt app.
3. Separate private and business (own account).
4. Document cash (cash book).
5. Reconcile monthly (bank statement against receipts).
6. Delete after the period unless other obligations (privacy, warranty) exist. Lost receipts can often be replaced via duplicates from the dealer or bank; for exceptions there are self-made receipts.

See also: Accounting software and cash book, A year of bookkeeping (EÜR), Backup strategy, Scanning and OCR