Record keeping: how long must you keep invoices and records?

The retention period

According to the Dutch Tax Administration, you must keep your records for 7 years. For data about immovable property and rights to immovable property, the period is 10 years. 10 years also applies to supplies and services under the Union scheme or the Import scheme of the one-stop shop (OSS).

The period only starts once a piece of data is no longer current. For a four-year lease contract, the 7-year retention period therefore only starts after the contract ends.

What does it cover?

Basic data is always kept for 7 years. This includes, among other things, the debtors and creditors records, the purchase and sales records and the general ledger. For other data you can agree shorter periods with the Tax Administration, which it records in writing.

Keeping invoices

You keep all invoices you send or receive in your records. You keep invoices for 7 years, and invoices on immovable property for 10 years.

• Digital invoices are kept digitally, in the form in which you sent or received them. So you do not print them.
• You may scan paper invoices and receipts, provided the scan is a correct and complete copy of the original and the authenticity features are stored as well. You then do not need to keep the original.
• The digital records must be retrievable within a reasonable time.
• If you take part in the small business scheme, you must still keep your purchase invoices.

How FactuurPro helps

In FactuurPro you can export invoices, payments and customers as CSV or a PDF bundle, for example for your accountant or your own archive. The retention obligation remains your responsibility: make an export regularly and store it safely yourself.