---
id: RISK-POL-0009
type: legal-policy
title: "Commercial and tax retention"
regime: "HGB §257, AO §147"
status: active
activates_when: "the estate keeps commercial books or issues and receives invoices — already true"
owner: risk-nexus
written: "2026-08-20"
cadence: instant
clean_streak: 0
last_checked: "2026-08-20T21:30:00Z"
next_check: "2026-08-20T21:30:00Z"
---

# RISK-POL-0009 — commercial and tax retention

**Active now.** This is the one policy in the set that does not wait for a
context: the estate already invoices, holds bank records and keeps books.

## What the sources require

| Class | Period | Source |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Books, inventories, opening balance sheets, annual accounts, management reports | 10 years | §257(1) no. 1, (4) HGB; §147(1) no. 1, (3) AO |
| Accounting vouchers (*Buchungsbelege*) | **8 years** | §147(3) AO, shortened from ten by the Fourth Bureaucracy Relief Act with effect from 2025 |
| Commercial and business letters received and sent | 6 years | §257(2), (4) HGB; §147(1) nos. 2–3 AO |

Periods run from the **end of the calendar year** in which the last entry was
made or the document created — not from the document's own date. That detail
is the one most often got wrong, and it always extends the period rather than
shortening it.

**The eight-year figure is recent and this repo has not verified it against the
current text.** Confirm before relying on it for a deletion decision; ten years
is the safe reading if nobody has.

## What it requires of systems

- Records in these classes must be **retrievable for the whole period**, not
  merely undeleted. A backup nobody can restore from does not satisfy a
  retention duty — the same standard `RISK-F-0006` applies to `apps-pg`.
- Immutability of content: they must not be silently rewritable.
- Deletion must be **possible and deliberate** at the end of the period.
  Retention duty is a floor, not a licence; `RISK-POL-0002` supplies the
  ceiling.

## Where it collides

With erasure (`RISK-POL-0002`, `RISK-F-0008`). An erasure request touching a
record inside a statutory retention period does not defeat the duty — Art
17(3)(b) GDPR covers exactly this. But **the exemption is per record, not per
system**: it covers the invoice, not the entire event log the invoice passed
through.

That distinction is where "we keep audit because it is audit" fails, and it is
why `RISK-REG-0001` states periods per category rather than one figure.

## Evidence that would show this is met

A retention schedule per record class; a demonstrated restore from the oldest
retained period; a deletion routine that actually runs at expiry.

None of those exist yet. This policy is `active` in the sense that the duty
applies, not in the sense that it is demonstrably satisfied — and the register
says which.