Keeping your records: 7 years

You are legally required to keep your records for 7 years. Sometimes the retention period is longer. (Belastingdienst: keep good records)

How long?

• Basic records: 7 years. Think of your general ledger, your debtors and creditors, your stock and your sales and purchase records.
• Records about immovable property: 10 years.
• Records from the one-stop shop system (One Stop Shop): 10 years.

(Belastingdienst: setting up your records)

What belongs in them?

• your sales invoices and purchase invoices;
• your bank statements;
• your VAT returns and your income tax returns;
• your cash book, if you work with cash;
• your hours log, as proof for the urencriterium (hours criterion).

Keeping records digitally

You may keep your records digitally. Keep invoices in the form in which you sent or received them. Make sure you can show the records within a reasonable time if the Belastingdienst (Dutch Tax Administration) asks for them.

Also after you stop

The retention duty continues when you stop your business. So do not throw away your records on the day you end your KVK (Chamber of Commerce) registration.

In ZZPboek

The app keeps your invoices, your receipts and your bank transactions. A sent invoice never changes again. In Settings you make a full export of your records, so that you also keep a copy yourself.