Tax

The seven-year tax retention obligation: what may go after?

12 December 2025 · 8 min read · DeSnipperaar

Every year after the corporation-tax return, entrepreneurs face the same question: which folder may finally go? The Dutch Tax Administration has long worked with a retention period of seven years for the basic administration, set out in article 52 of the General Tax Act (AWR). But practice is more nuanced. For some items, 9 years apply, for others 10, and there are documents that may go for tax purposes after 5 years but must in fact remain longer under GDPR. This article sets it out.

Target audience: entrepreneurs, bookkeepers, administrators and accountants who want to clear out annually without risk of an additional assessment or GDPR fine.

The core of article 52 AWR

Article 52 AWR obliges persons subject to administration to keep data carriers for seven years. The period starts on 1 January of the year following the last year in which the document was relevant. Concretely: an invoice from 2017 may be shredded on 1 January 2025, because the relevant financial year is then eight calendar years back. That is often different from what people think.

The Act explicitly mentions the ‘basic administration’: general ledger, debtor and creditor administration, stock, purchases and sales, payroll. The Tax Administration may audit up to those seven years, and in case of a tax post-assessment sometimes longer via article 16 AWR (up to 12 years for foreign assets).

The seven years in practice

What falls under the standard seven years?

• General ledger accounts and journal entries
• Debtor and creditor cards
• Purchase and sales invoices
• Bank statements and cash documents
• Stock administration
• Annual accounts and balance sheet
• Payroll administration (tax side, data sets for payroll-tax return)
• VAT returns and underlying documents
• Import documents in international trade

For tax purposes this may go after seven years. From a GDPR perspective, look at whether personal data are in there. If so, destruction is not a may-rule but a must-rule, because further retention without a purpose is an infringement of GDPR article 5.

The nine-year period for real estate

If you have real estate in the business, a revision period of nine years applies for VAT (article 15(6) VAT Act and article 13 VAT Implementation Decree). That means the administration around acquisition, revision and VAT offset must be kept for nine years. In practice many entrepreneurs round up to ten years so as not to run a risk.

An entrepreneur who bought a business property in 2015 and did the last VAT revision in 2024 may only finally destroy the property administration on 1 January 2034.

Documents that may go sooner than 7 years

Not everything has to be kept for seven years. A few categories may go sooner, and from a GDPR perspective have to.

• Application data: 4 weeks, maximum 1 year with consent.
• Copies of ID: 5 years after end of employment, not tax-relevant after that.
• Internal emails without tax relevance: as short as possible, often 1 to 2 years.
• Staff expense claims with scanned receipt: 7 years for tax purposes, but the original paper receipt may often go as soon as the scan is stored in an ‘unalterable’ way.

Also important: the Dutch Data Protection Authority has repeatedly stressed that the seven-year tax period is no carte blanche to keep all personal data for seven years. Only where a document has a tax purpose and personal data form an inseparable part does the retention obligation apply. For peripheral matters you must be stricter.

The digital side

The Tax Administration accepts digital retention if the original form of recording is preserved, legibility is guaranteed, and the data are auditable. In practice that means PDF scans with good OCR, stored on a system with logging. If you have digital in order, the paper documents may be shredded as soon as the scan is verified. That is the way to reclaim archive space, for example via our professional paper shredding service.

Watch out, though: certain originals must remain physical. Think of signed contracts with legally valid signature, notarial deeds, certain import documents (customs) and paper warranty certificates. Ask your accountant if in doubt. Destroying an original is hard to reverse.

Destroying after 7 years: the checklist

1. Draw a year line and plan your annual destruction moment. All documents from financial year X may go on 1 January of year X+8, unless an exception applies.
2. Run through exceptions: real estate (9 years), ongoing disputes, tax post-assessment, subsidy obligations (sometimes 10 years).
3. Physically separate the boxes to be destroyed from the rest, so no mistake occurs.
4. Choose a destruction method that meets DIN 66399 P-5. Read our article on DIN 66399 P-levels if needed.
5. Have a destruction certificate drawn up and keep it for 5 years as evidence towards accountant and AP.
6. Update your processing register. Processing operations that no longer exist do not belong in the register.

The non-administrator: freelancer, association, private individual

Not everyone falls under article 52 AWR. Private individuals have no statutory retention obligation, but 5 years for income-tax returns is a safe practical period. Non-profit associations have a lighter administration obligation but generally stick to the same 7 years to avoid having to account for anything during an audit. Freelancers are subject to administration as soon as they are entrepreneurs for income-tax purposes and so fall under the full period.

The interaction with GDPR and employment law

A pitfall: some HR files must go sooner than 7 years (see our retention period cheatsheet) but payslips must be kept for tax purposes for 7 years. The solution is splitting: separate the tax-relevant part (payslip) from the GDPR-sensitive part (absenteeism, application) and apply the appropriate period to each part of the file. That prevents you from accidentally keeping everything for 7 years ‘just in case’ and thereby infringing GDPR.

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