Germany Business Email
Retention
Germany’s regulations are clear and precise about most commercial documents, but are not specific about personnel records (apart from those relevant to tax – see table below). So, for employee-related information, follow GDPR and store personal data for the shortest time possible.
Germany’s regulations are clear and precise about most commercial documents, but are not specific about personnel records (apart from those relevant to tax – see table below). So, for employee-related information, follow GDPR and store personal data for the shortest time possible.
For other business documents, including emails, the following tax and trade laws apply:
- GoBD, the acronym of a long German name, translating as “basic principles on the proper keeping and storage of financial books, recordings, and documents in electronic form as well as data access”
- AO (the German Fiscal Code)
- HGB, or Handelsgesetzbuch, Germany’s Commercial Code
These laws separate most business documents into two groups: one must be kept for six years, the other for ten. The table below gives a detailed list of all types of documents and related emails for these 10- and 6-years retention periods.
| Retention Period | Document Type/Related Emails |
|---|---|
| 10 years Keep the types of documents/emails described on the right for at least 10 years | Briefly: trading books, inventories, opening balance sheets, financial statements, and everything needed for understanding them, plus tax-related documents (e.g. accounting receipts) Access regulations for EDP bookkeeping • Accounting documents, records and statements • Accounts receivable list (if balance sheet documents) • Annual financial statements with explanations • Appendix to the annual financial statements (Section 264 HGB) • Applications for employee savings allowance • Audit reports from the auditor Balance sheets (including opening balance sheet) • Bank guarantees after the end of the contract • Block diagrams, as far as procedural documentation • Business reports • Business letters as booking vouchers such as invoices and credit notes Calculations and calculation documents, if relevant under commercial or tax law, e.g. for inventory valuation • Capital-forming benefits, if accounting documents • Cash books / sheets • Cash-on-delivery documents • Cash reports • Changes in electronic bookkeeping • Chart of accounts and changes to the chart of accounts • Cheque and bill of exchange documents, as accounting records • Commercial register excerpts, certified or if necessary in your own interest • Company accounting sheets with receipts as a basis for evaluation • Consolidated financial statements (section 290 HGB) • Contracts, insofar as they are of importance under commercial and tax law and if accounting documents • Contribution statements for social security contributions (booking receipts) • Credits in the sense of "reverse invoices" • Customs documents Damage documents, if balance sheet documents • Data sets, their description and structure • Data protection rules • Deposit statements (if not inventories) • Delivery notes (proof of receipt, connected with an invoice) • Document formats • Donation receipts, if booking documents Employee insurance (booking receipts) • Entertainment expenses (documents) • Error messages, error correction instructions for EDP bookkeeping, if booking documents • Evaluation documents • Export documents Field service invoices (booking vouchers bank receipts) • File notes: balance sheet documents or accounting documents • Files with their descriptions • File directories • Fixed asset books and card indexes General ledger accounts • Gift certificates • Goods receipt and goods issue ledger bills of exchange • Group management report (sections 290, 350 HGB) Hospitality documents (booking receipts or tax-related) Import documents (applications, permits, declarations, licenses, customs documents, etc.) • Income statements (annual income statements only) • Incoming invoices including correction documents • Input descriptions for EDP bookkeeping • Input data formats • Insurance policies • Interim balance sheet (in the event of a change of shareholder or change of the financial year) • Inventories (section 240 HGB) • Inventory bookkeeping • Invoices to entrepreneurs Journals for general ledger or current account Land register extracts if inventory documents • Lease documents (after the end of the contract), if accounting documents • Liabilities (compilations) • List of assets • Loan documents as booking vouchers Magnetic tapes (land register or account or document function) • Main financial statements overview • Management reports (balance sheet documents) • Mask (screen, print) • Meal voucher statements • Memory allocation plan of EDP bookkeeping • Menu overview Operator manuals for computer operation • Organisational documents for EDP bookkeeping • Outgoing invoices • Overtime lists if salary slips Pay slips as accounting slips • Payment instructions • Payrolls including lists for special payments as far as booking receipt • Price lists, if evaluation or booking documents • Property register (if inventory) • Postal giro statements and receipts, if accounting documents • Program directories and descriptions of the program sequence • Process files Rental documents, including booking vouchers (after the end of the contract) •Retention regulations for company IT documentation • Records • Receipts • Receipts, if booking function (open item accounting) • Register of accounts Sales books • Shipping and freight records if booking receipts • Standard value documents • Standing order documents (after the order has expired) • Subsidiary books • System manuals Tax returns and tax assessments • Telephone cost statements if booking receipts • Trading books • Travel expenses documents/reports User manuals for computerised bookkeeping • Utility bills Work instructions (also for electronic bookkeeping) |
| 6 years Keep the types of documents/emails described on the right for at least six years | Briefly, all business letters received, and copies of business letters sent. For a list of particular documents, see below. Asset-forming benefits (documents) ** Business letters (received and reproduction of dispatched) Commercial letters (except invoices or credit notes) • Correspondence Damage documents • Declarations of assignment, as far as completed • Delivery notes • Documents of importance for taxation • Dunning notices and reminders (commercial letters received and content reproduction of commercial letters sent) Field service invoices, if other Insurance policies, after the insurance expires • Investment allowance (documents) Letters of credit • Loan documents (after the end of the contract) waybills, and loan documents in form of correspondence Notes on files Offers with order sequence Payrolls for interim, final and special payments • Price lists • Protocols *, as commercial letters • Cheque and bill of exchange documents Tax audit reports (external tax audit) |
| 2 years | Invoices to non-entrepreneurs in connection with land (obligation to notify) |
* A 10-year retention period applies to protocols on the granting of bonuses for suggestions for improvement. For logs of the DÜVO notifications (data transmission regulation), however, only a 3-year period.
** The 10-year retention period applies to accounting records, and the 6-year retention period for received commercial and business letters and reproductions of commercial and business letters.
Sources: hk24.de armaedfoundation.org skslegal.pl global-regulation.com