Guides / What is GoBD?
What is GoBD?
Germany's framework for digital document retention and tax-compliant archiving — who it applies to, its core requirements, and retention periods.
GoBD — short for “Grundsätze zur ordnungsmäßigen Führung und Aufbewahrung von Büchern, Aufzeichnungen und Unterlagen in elektronischer Form sowie zum Datenzugriff” — is a set of principles published by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF). It defines how businesses must keep and archive their digital records to remain tax-compliant. First issued in 2014 and updated in 2019, GoBD is the binding standard for electronic bookkeeping in Germany.
Who must comply?
All businesses required to keep accounting records under German tax law — including corporations, partnerships, sole traders, and freelancers.
Core requirements
- Completeness — all relevant business documents must be captured and retained without gaps.
- Accuracy — records must correctly reflect the underlying business transactions.
- Timeliness — documents must be recorded promptly, at or near the time of the transaction.
- Immutability — once archived, records must not be altered without a full, logged change history.
- Traceability — every document must be traceable from origin through its entire lifecycle.
- Data access — tax authorities must be able to access and audit all digital records on request.
Retention periods
| Period | Applies to |
|---|---|
| 10 years | Accounting books, invoices, contracts, bank statements, and all other tax-relevant documents |
| 6 years | Business correspondence, order confirmations, and delivery notes |
How Papermerge helps
Papermerge is built from the ground up to satisfy GoBD requirements. Immutable document storage, complete audit trails, versioned documents with cryptographic checksums, and configurable retention policies are core to the architecture — not optional add-ons.