Records
What you must keep, and for how long
Seven years is the main rule. The more important question is what falls under it — and that is more than the invoices.
In short
In the Netherlands a seven-year retention obligation applies to your records. That covers not only your sales and purchase invoices, but also your bank statements, your general ledger, your cash and journal entries, contracts and the underlying calculations. Digital storage is allowed, as long as the documents stay legible and auditable and cannot be changed unnoticed. During an audit the Dutch Tax Administration can request your entire financial year in a single standard file: the audit file, in XAF format.
The essentials
- Retention period
- Seven years for the records as a whole, counted from the moment a record is no longer current. Ten years for data concerning immovable property.
- Format
- Digital storage is allowed, provided the records remain legible, accessible and auditable — and cannot be altered unnoticed.
- During an audit
- The audit file (XAF) contains the complete journal of a financial year. From 1 January 2027 the Belastingdienst accepts only XAF 4.0 for submission; 3.2 is the older version.
What the retention obligation covers
The obligation reaches further than the invoices you sent and received. Your bank statements, your general ledger with all journal entries, your cash records, your journal postings, your contracts and the calculations a booking rests on all fall under it. In short: everything that shows how you arrived at a figure.
That last point is the heart of the rule. An auditor must be able to walk back from a figure on your return to the document it comes from. If that path is missing, the records are not auditable at that point — and that is a problem separate from whether the figure was correct.
How long, and from when
The main rule is seven years. That term does not start on a fixed date: as long as a record is still current, it is part of your ongoing records, and the seven years only begin once it is no longer current. The Dutch Tax Administration itself gives the example of a four-year lease contract: you keep it for those four years, and then for another seven.
For data concerning immovable property the term is ten years, because the VAT on it can be revised over a longer period. Selling or winding up your business does not end the obligation: the term simply keeps running.
When does the retention period start? The Dutch Belastingdienst's own example
- You sign a four-year leaseWhile it runs, it is current and belongs to your ongoing records.
- The lease endsAfter four years it is no longer current. Now the retention period starts.
- Keep it another seven yearsThe main rule. For records about real estate it is ten years.
- Then you may discard itIn this example, eleven years after the lease began.
Storing records digitally
Digital storage is allowed and is the norm in practice. The requirement is not the format but the property: the records must stay legible, accessible and auditable for seven years, and nothing may change in them unnoticed. Accounting software that keeps a change log and does not let entries be silently amended satisfies that by design.
You may scan a paper invoice and keep it digitally, provided the scan is a faithful reproduction and all authenticity features carry over. With a digital invoice, keep the original file too — a PDF you reprinted from your own package is not the same document as the file your supplier sent.
What gets requested during an audit
During a books inspection the Belastingdienst usually does not ask for individual documents but for your entire financial year in one standard file: the audit file in XAF format. That file contains your company details, your relations, your chart of accounts, your VAT codes, your periods, your opening balance and every entry of that year.
From 1 January 2027 the Belastingdienst accepts only XAF 4.0 for submission; the older version 3.2 still exists for recipients who remain on it. The contents are the same in both cases — only the file's layout differs. If you cannot supply such a file, the audit becomes a manual exercise in which you carry the burden of proof.
Updated October 2, 2026. General explanation of the Dutch rules, not tax advice — for your own situation, decide together with your accountant or the Dutch Tax Administration.
Frequently asked questions
May I throw away paper receipts after scanning them?
For most documents you may, provided the scan is a faithful and complete reproduction and stays legible for seven years. That does not hold for a limited set of documents; check before destroying originals.
What if my accounting package shuts down or I switch?
The retention obligation rests with you, not with your supplier. Make sure a switch takes a full export with you — the audit file for every financial year plus your documents — and not just access to an old account.
Does the obligation also apply under the small businesses scheme?
Yes. The exemption concerns charging and deducting VAT, not your records. You must still be able to show how you arrived at your turnover figure — if only to demonstrate that you stayed below the threshold.
GuidesAccounting software that speaks your languageAccountant? This explanation in your client's language