DIGITAL ARCHIVING IS PERMISSIBLE UNDER LAW
(TAX LAW AO / TAX REGULATIONS)
"These are excerpts pertaining to German Law." § 146 par 5 p. 2 and 3 AO Administrative regulations for accounting and recording For bookkeeping and other mandatory recording on data media you have to warrant that the data is always available and can be made legible immediately over the legal archiving period. |
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§ 147 Administrative regulations for archiving Par.1: Following documents have to be kept separately: 1. Ledgers and records, inventories, financial statements, business reports the opening balance and the instructions required for understanding and other organisational documents
2. Received incoming business correspondence 3. Reproductions of outgoing business and trade correspondence 4. Booking slips 5. Other documents as far as tax-relevant. |
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§147 par. 2 AO: With the exception of financial statements and opening balances the documents listed under par. 1 can also be archived on image media or other data media,if this complies with GoB „principles of standard accounting, and it is warranted that the representation or data are true and authentic in image and contents to the received business correspondence and the booking slips and other documents when visualized, and are available at all times during the archiving period. |
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§147 par. 5: Who presents documents to be archived only by representation on image media or other data media is obliged to provide on his own cost and account the tools that are required to visualize these data, and on request of the tax authorities, he has to print out the data, fully or partly, on his own costs, or provide reproductions that can be visualized wihtout tools.
DIRECTIVE ON FILING REGULATIONS If documents according to § 147 par. 2 AO are provided as microfilms
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