Retention periods reference
Keeping and deleting are two separate duties, not one. This reference shows, for the common types of record under German law, how long you must keep them, what the period rests on and when it starts. Search for a record type or filter by area of law.
No signup · runs in your browser · nothing you enter is transmitted
One filter at a time. "All" shows the complete reference.
Searches the label, period, legal basis and note — including section numbers such as "257" or "SGB".
Commercial books, inventories, opening balance sheet, annual financial statements, management reports
10 yearsLegal basis: Section 257(1) no. 1, (4) HGB (German Commercial Code) · Section 147(1) no. 1, (3) AO (German Fiscal Code)
This also covers the working instructions and organisational documents needed to understand them. The period starts at the end of the calendar year in which the last entry was made or the accounts were adopted.
Accounting vouchers (Buchungsbelege)
8 yearsLegal basis: Section 257(1) no. 4, (4) HGB (German Commercial Code) · Section 147(1) no. 4, (3) AO (German Fiscal Code)
Eight instead of ten years since 1 January 2025 (Fourth Bureaucracy Relief Act, BEG IV). The shortened period applies to every voucher whose ten-year period had not yet expired on 31 December 2024 (Art. 97 Section 19a(2) EGAO). The period still starts at the end of the calendar year in which the voucher came into existence.
Accounting vouchers at credit institutions, insurers and investment firms
10 yearsLegal basis: Section 257(4) sentence 2 HGB (German Commercial Code) · Art. 97 Section 19a(3) EGAO
Institutions under Section 1(1b) KWG (Banking Act), undertakings supervised under Section 1(1) VAG (Insurance Supervision Act) and investment firms under Section 2(1) WpIG stay on ten years. The shortening, initially only deferred for the financial sector, was withdrawn entirely in 2025.
Commercial letters received
6 yearsLegal basis: Section 257(1) no. 2, (4) HGB (German Commercial Code) · Section 147(1) no. 2, (3) AO (German Fiscal Code)
A commercial letter is any correspondence concerning a commercial transaction — email included. The duty attaches to content, not medium, so a mailbox is not a viable archive.
Reproductions of commercial letters sent
6 yearsLegal basis: Section 257(1) no. 3, (4) HGB (German Commercial Code) · Section 147(1) no. 3, (3) AO (German Fiscal Code)
What must be kept is the reproduction of the version sent — copy, sent folder, outbound archive — not the original held by the recipient.
Invoices and copies of invoices issued (VAT)
8 yearsLegal basis: Section 14b(1) UStG (German VAT Act)
The period starts at the end of the calendar year in which the invoice was issued. Here too the Fourth Bureaucracy Relief Act cut ten years to eight. Invoices are also accounting vouchers, so both periods run in parallel.
Other documents relevant for taxation
6 yearsLegal basis: Section 147(1) no. 5, (3) AO (German Fiscal Code)
A catch-all for anything relevant to taxation that is not already covered by nos. 1 to 4a — costings, contracts or price lists with a tax dimension, for example.
Anti-money-laundering records and supporting documents
5 years, destroy after 10 years at the latestLegal basis: Section 8(4) GwG (German Anti-Money Laundering Act)
The period starts at the end of the calendar year in which the business relationship ends or the information was collected. The ten-year cap is an express duty to destroy — one of the few cases where the statute itself orders deletion.
Payroll accounts and related records
Until the end of the 6th calendar year after the last wage paymentLegal basis: Section 41(1) sentence 9 EStG (German Income Tax Act)
The trigger is the last wage payment recorded, not the year the document was created. Where an employee leaves mid-year, the period therefore runs from the end of that year.
Social security payroll records and contribution statements
Until the end of the calendar year following the last auditLegal basis: Section 28f(1) SGB IV (German Social Code, Book IV)
The period is tied to the employer audit under Section 28p SGB IV, not to the calendar: nothing may be destroyed before the next audit. A deletion concept has to key this entry to the audit date, not to a fixed number of years.
Records of working time exceeding eight hours per working day
At least 2 yearsLegal basis: Section 16(2) ArbZG (German Working Time Act)
This covers only the time exceeding Section 3 sentence 1 ArbZG, plus the register of employees who consented to an extension under Section 7(7) ArbZG — not the complete time-tracking record.
Daily working-time records under the Minimum Wage Act
At least 2 yearsLegal basis: Section 17(1) MiLoG (German Minimum Wage Act)
Start, end and duration of daily working time must be recorded no later than the seventh calendar day after the work was performed; the two years run from the point that is decisive for the record.
Job application files after a rejection
6 monthsPractice benchmark — no express statutory period
Legal basis: Derived from Section 15(4) AGG (General Equal Treatment Act) with Section 61b(1) ArbGG (Labour Courts Act)
Two months to assert a claim in writing (Section 15(4) AGG) plus three months to bring an action (Section 61b(1) ArbGG) plus a buffer for delivery of the rejection. Keeping files longer, for a talent pool for instance, requires consent.
Personnel file and employment contract after the employment ends
3 years as a rulePractice benchmark — no express statutory period
Legal basis: Standard limitation period, Sections 195, 199(1) BGB (German Civil Code)
There is no single statutory period for the personnel file. The standard limitation period starts at the end of the year in which the claim arose. Individual components — payroll account, social security records, working-time, health-surveillance and exposure records — carry their own, much longer periods and must not be deleted wholesale with the file.
Occupational health surveillance register (Vorsorgekartei)
Until the employment ends, then deleteLegal basis: Section 3(4) ArbMedVV (Ordinance on Occupational Health Care)
The register only records that, when and on what occasion health surveillance took place — no findings. On leaving, employees receive a copy of their entries; the data must then be deleted unless other legal provisions require otherwise.
Exposure register: carcinogenic or germ-cell mutagenic substances, category 1A/1B
40 years after exposure endsLegal basis: Section 10a GefStoffV (German Hazardous Substances Ordinance)
The register records the activity, the level and the duration of exposure. The 40 years reflect the latency of occupational diseases. On leaving, employees receive an extract of their data; the register may be kept via the DGUV central exposure database.
Exposure register: reprotoxic substances, category 1A/1B
5 years after exposure endsLegal basis: Section 10a GefStoffV (German Hazardous Substances Ordinance)
Markedly shorter than for carcinogenic and germ-cell mutagenic substances. Both cases sit in the same provision and are routinely mixed up in deletion concepts.
Register of employees working with biological agents of risk group 3 or 4
At least 10 years after the activity endsLegal basis: Section 7 BioStoffV (German Biological Agents Ordinance)
Applies to risk groups 3 and 4 only. For risk groups 1 and 2 the BioStoffV does not require such a register — only the general risk assessment and training documentation apply there.
Body-dose records of occupationally exposed persons
Until age 75, and at least 30 years after the employment endsLegal basis: Section 167(2) StrlSchG (German Radiation Protection Act)
The later of the two points governs: until the monitored person has reached or would have reached the age of 75, but at least 30 years after the end of the relevant employment.
Records and X-ray images from medical exposure of humans
30 years for treatment, 10 years for examinationLegal basis: Section 85(2) StrlSchG (Radiation Protection Act) · Section 127 StrlSchV (Radiation Protection Ordinance)
Where the person examined had not yet reached the age of 18, the records must be kept until they turn 28. Section 127 StrlSchV governs how the records must be kept legible and transferable over that period.
Record of first-aid measures (first-aid log)
5 yearsLegal basis: Section 24(6) DGUV Regulation 1 (German accident insurance rules)
An accident-insurance duty with no prescribed format — paper log, notepad or electronic. The entries are health data under Art. 9 GDPR, must be protected against unauthorised access and must be deleted after five years.
CCTV footage
48 to 72 hoursPractice benchmark — no express statutory period
Legal basis: No statutory period; practice of the German supervisory authorities under Art. 5(1)(e) GDPR
The benchmark rests on the assumption that damage is normally noticed within that window. Longer storage is only permissible for a specific reason — pursuing a concrete incident, say — and must be justified and documented.
Evidence of consent given
For the duration of the processing, then until the limitation period expiresLegal basis: Art. 7(1) GDPR · Art. 5(2) GDPR
The controller must be able to demonstrate that consent was given. After withdrawal or the end of the processing, the evidence is only needed to defend against claims — it outlives the processing, not the other way round.
Record of processing activities
For as long as the processing continuesLegal basis: Art. 30 GDPR
Not a retention period in the strict sense: the record must be kept up to date and made available to the supervisory authority on request. Keeping earlier versions is advisable so that accountability can also be demonstrated for past periods.
Documentation of personal data breaches
3 yearsPractice benchmark — no express statutory period
Legal basis: Art. 33(5) GDPR requires the documentation but sets no duration
The benchmark is the limitation period for damages claims under Art. 82 GDPR read with Sections 195, 199 BGB — three years from the end of the year in which the claim arose and the data subject became aware of it.
Handling of data subject requests (access, erasure, objection)
3 yearsPractice benchmark — no express statutory period
Legal basis: No statutory period; accountability under Art. 5(2) GDPR
What to document is receipt, identity check, response and date — not the full data set that was disclosed. Retaining that set as evidence extends precisely the storage it was meant to prove.
Log data and server logs
A few days to weeksPractice benchmark — no express statutory period
Legal basis: No general statutory period; Art. 5(1)(e) and Art. 32 GDPR
Security purposes justify short retention, but there is no blanket period. The duration must be set against the purpose and recorded in the deletion concept. Logs that form part of a booking process can exceptionally fall under Section 147 AO.
Four rules that apply to every entry
- A retention duty and a duty to erase are two different things. Art. 17(3)(b) GDPR permits retention for as long as a legal obligation exists; when the period expires it becomes a duty to erase under Art. 17(1)(a) read with Art. 5(1)(e) GDPR.
- The longest applicable period wins — but only for the data the duty actually covers. A blanket "everything for ten years" breaches storage limitation; it is not caution.
- During the retention period the data must be restricted, not processed on: a separate archive, restricted access rights, no appearance in the CRM, in analytics or in marketing.
- The period almost always starts at the end of the calendar year, not on the document date (Section 257(5) HGB, Section 147(4) AO). Deleting by document date deletes too early.
German commercial and tax law prescribe how long certain records must be kept: ten years for commercial books, inventories, the opening balance sheet, annual financial statements and management reports; eight years for accounting vouchers; six years for commercial letters received and sent (Section 257(1) and (4) HGB, the German Commercial Code, and Section 147(1) and (3) AO, the German Fiscal Code). The period almost always starts at the end of the calendar year in which the last entry was made or the voucher came into existence (Section 257(5) HGB, Section 147(4) AO) — not on the date of the document. Under data protection law, Art. 17(3)(b) GDPR justifies retention only for as long as that legal obligation exists. Once the period expires, the permission turns into a duty to erase under Art. 17(1)(a) GDPR read together with the storage limitation principle in Art. 5(1)(e) GDPR.
Orientation only — not legal advice. The periods shown are the statutory default cases; sector-specific rules, ongoing tax audits, litigation or contractual commitments can extend them. Entries explicitly marked as a practice benchmark do not rest on a statutory period but on established practice and the position taken by the German supervisory authorities.
Frequently asked
- What is the difference between a retention duty and a duty to erase?
- The retention duty comes from German commercial, tax, social security or occupational safety law and forces you to keep data. The duty to erase comes from the GDPR and forces you to remove it once the purpose has ceased. They apply in sequence: Art. 17(3)(b) GDPR permits retention for as long as a legal obligation exists; when the period expires that justification falls away and permission turns into obligation — erasure under Art. 17(1)(a) GDPR read with Art. 5(1)(e) GDPR.
- When does the retention period start?
- Under German commercial and tax law, at the end of the calendar year in which the last entry was made, the inventory drawn up or the voucher created (Section 257(5) HGB, Section 147(4) AO) — not on the date printed on the document. An accounting voucher from March 2025 therefore only starts running on 31 December 2025 and, at eight years, must be kept until the end of 2033. This is the single most common mistake in deletion concepts: deleting by document date deletes too early.
- If one period is ten years, do I have to keep everything for ten years?
- No. The longest applicable period does win — but only for the data that the obligation in question actually covers. A ten-year period for the annual financial statements does not extend the six-month benchmark for job applications, nor the 72 hours for CCTV footage. A blanket "everything for ten years" is not caution; it breaches the storage limitation principle.
- How long must accounting vouchers be kept — eight or ten years?
- Eight years. The Fourth Bureaucracy Relief Act (Viertes Bürokratieentlastungsgesetz) shortened the period for accounting vouchers from ten to eight years with effect from 1 January 2025 (Section 257(4) HGB, Section 147(3) AO). The shortened period applies to all vouchers whose ten-year period had not yet expired on 31 December 2024 (Art. 97 Section 19a(2) EGAO, the Introductory Act to the Fiscal Code). Credit institutions, supervised insurance undertakings and investment firms remain on ten years — the shortening initially envisaged for them was reversed in 2025. Other categories are unchanged: ten years for commercial books, inventories and annual accounts, six years for commercial letters.
- What do I do with data I must keep but no longer need?
- Restrict it instead of continuing to process it. Data still held solely because of a commercial or tax retention duty must no longer be used for its original purpose — it should not surface in the CRM, feed into analytics or be used for marketing. In practice this means a separate archive or a blocking flag, restricted access rights and a documented purpose. This restriction of processing is what Art. 18 GDPR contemplates, and German supervisory authorities expect it for legacy data held under a retention duty.
- How long may I keep job applications after a rejection?
- Six months as a rule. There is no express statutory period; the figure is derived from the AGG (the German General Equal Treatment Act): claims must be asserted in writing within two months (Section 15(4) AGG) and an action must be brought within three months of that assertion (Section 61b(1) ArbGG, the Labour Courts Act). Six months covers those five months plus delivery of the rejection. Keeping applications longer — for a talent pool, say — requires consent.