Document retention periods in Switzerland: the complete table

The retention table

The reference period is the Code of Obligations': 10 years for everything the accounts rely on. VAT, direct tax and the Employment Act set their own periods, which apply alongside it. Where several apply to one document, the longest wins.

Work out the day a document may go

Pick the kind of document and give its starting point: the end of the financial year for the accounts, the year for VAT. The calculation runs in your browser; nothing is sent.

From when the period runs

For the accounts, the period does not start on the invoice date but at the end of the financial year the invoice belongs to (CO art. 958f). An invoice of 3 January 2026 and one of 30 December 2026 belong to the same year: if it ends on 31 December 2026, both are kept until 31 December 2036 and may be destroyed from 1 January 2037.

A non-calendar financial year changes everything: if it runs from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026, its vouchers are kept until 30 June 2036.

For VAT, the tax period is the calendar year (VAT Act art. 34 para. 2). Records are kept until the right to assess the tax is absolutely prescribed, 10 years after the end of that year (VAT Act art. 42 para. 6). An announced audit interrupts the ordinary 5-year prescription, but never beyond those 10 years.

For working-time records, the 5 years run from the day a record stops being valid (ArGV 1 art. 73 para. 2 (in German)). For a company deleted from the register, they run from its deletion from the commercial register (CO art. 747, CO art. 590).

Paper or digital: may you discard the original after scanning it?

Yes, for accounting records and vouchers. The law accepts them "on paper, electronically or in a comparable manner", on two conditions: the link to the underlying transaction stays guaranteed, and they can be made readable at any time (CO art. 958f para. 3). An invoice received as a PDF is already an electronic voucher: there is no need to print it.

VAT sets no separate rule: electronic records follow the same articles of the CO and the same ordinance (VAT Ordinance art. 122).

What the Accounts Ordinance asks of a digital archive

• Integrity: a document cannot be changed without the change showing (art. 3).
• Documentation: the organisation, responsibilities, procedures and tools are described in writing, and those instructions are kept as long as the records (art. 4).
• Availability: any authorised person can inspect the records within a reasonable time, and they can be made readable (art. 6).
• Organisation: archived data is kept apart from current data, and who is responsible for it is recorded (art. 7).
• Access: archived information is inventoried, protected against unauthorised access, and every access is logged (art. 8).
• Media: an unalterable medium, or an alterable one with an electronic signature, a timestamp, recorded procedures and kept logs (Accounts Ordinance art. 9 (GeBüV, in German)).
• Checks and migration: readability is checked regularly; a change of format or medium is allowed if it is complete, accurate and recorded in minutes (art. 10).

After the business closes

The records of a company limited by shares, LLC or cooperative are kept 10 years after deletion from the register, in a safe place chosen by the liquidators or, failing agreement, by the commercial register office (CO art. 747, 826 and 913). The same applies to a general or limited partnership (CO art. 590). For a sole proprietorship, the ordinary periods keep running.

Personal data: keep what you must, and no more

Data protection law points the other way: personal data is destroyed or anonymised as soon as it is no longer needed (FADP art. 6 para. 4). A payslip is still an accounting voucher and is kept 10 years; a rejected applicant's file has no reason to be kept once the job is filled.

In practice: an archive that lasts ten years

1. File by financial year, not by calendar year: the financial year sets the destruction date.
2. Keep the file as it arrived: the PDF received by e-mail is the electronic original.
3. Write your procedure down (who scans, where, how it is checked): the Accounts Ordinance asks for it.
4. Review once a year, in January: what has reached its date may go, unless an audit or a dispute is open.
5. Check with your fiduciary that your organisation, whatever the tool, meets the Accounts Ordinance.

In Filetable, every document that arrives is read: its date, supplier and amount land in a table, each value linked to the place it was read. A smart drive then files the documents by any column, the financial year for one: finding what has reached its date becomes a single search.