The storage and legally compliant destruction of business documents is always an issue for entrepreneurs at the beginning of a new year. In the following, we have compiled what is important in 2020.
Legal retention periods – (almost) everything comes to an end
Companies are primarily concerned with statutory retention periods in tax law, commercial law as well as labour and social law. These deadlines ensure that authorities and social security institutions have access to certain documents, which in turn determine legal relationships, such as taxation. From a business point of view, these documents also serve to protect the company and to prove legally compliant processes and procedures. The premature destruction of business documents is punishable by law. Therefore, the utmost care is advisable.
Calculating retention periods in tax law
In some countries, there is a risk of fines if the A1 certificate cannot be presented during inspections. Some states accept at least the application as proof of an A1 certificate.
In principle, a period of 10 years applies here. It begins to run at the end of the year in which the last entry in current records was made. Therefore, documents for the year 2008 can usually be destroyed in 2020. It is assumed that the last booking for the year was made in 2009. The written announcement of a tax audit by the tax office by 31.12.2019 requires the retention of the tax documents from 2008 beyond the beginning of 2020.
A six-year retention period applies to wage tax documents.
The retention obligations under tax law between 6 and 10 years also apply in commercial law, which, however, only sets retention obligations for merchants.
Special features of accounting documents
A distinction is made here between 2 deadlines: Documents that are not considered accounting documents must be kept for 6 years. Accounting documents are subject to the ten-year retention period under tax law. A company that keeps accounting documents for 10 years in case of doubt is on the safe side.
The Bureaucracy Relief Act III
This current law makes it easier for companies to store electronically stored documents. In this case, a period of 5 years applies for the retention of a data carrier with stored tax documents. However, the new legal regulation only covers data whose storage starts on 1 January 2020.
Labour and Social Law
A two-year retention period applies to the records of overtime.
In social law, various time limits apply that result from § 28 f (1) sentences 1 and 2 SGB IV. For example, the employer must keep remuneration documents in an orderly manner until the end of the calendar year following the last audit. The last audit refers to the last tax audit carried out by the social security institutions. In this case, the retention period may be very long.
Store longer if you are unsure
If there are doubts in the company about the expiry of a retention period, especially in tax law, documents should be kept longer. In § 147.3 sentence 3 of the Tax Code, tax law provides for a further suspension of expiration. The retention period for documents cannot expire as long as these documents are still needed for taxes whose assessment period has not yet expired. The tax advisor will help you with this question.
Some things should be stored permanently. Litigation records, court rulings, and certain contracts should be kept for as long as a company exists.
Destruction of business documents
Is it enough to shred business documents after the retention period has expired?
Data protection plays a key role when it comes to the destruction of data. Particularly strict requirements apply to personal data here. That’s why it can be insufficient to simply pass such data through the office shredder. It should only be suitable for non-confidential documents without references to persons.
DIN 66399 specifies different security levels for data destruction devices in levels between 1 and 7. Furthermore, depending on the type of data to be destroyed, protection classes between 1 and 3 apply. For example, strictly confidential patient data is subject to the highest protection class 3. If a company wants to destroy files and documents, it must classify the data into the protection classes and evaluate the existing data destruction devices in the stages. If this work is too time-consuming, professional document shredders offer legally compliant destruction with a certificate. In this way, the company can be sure and can prove the correct document destruction at any time later.
We look forward to your comments.
Image source: Pixabay, Photographer: stux
