How long are accounting documents kept?
The retention period is set per document type and written into the company's records retention schedule.
Răspuns scurt
- Registers and supporting documents are kept, as a general rule, for 10 years from the close of the financial year (Law 82/1991).
- Payroll records are kept for 50 years, because they are used to establish pension rights.
- For some financial-accounting documents the period is 5 years (OMFP Order 2634/2015).
- The period runs from the closing of the financial year, not from the date on the document.
What the law says (in brief)
- Accounting Law 82/1991: 10 years for registers and supporting documents, 50 years for payroll records.
- OMFP Order 2634/2015: for some financial-accounting documents the retention period is 5 years.
- Law 16/1996: the company draws up its own records retention schedule, i.e. the list of document types with each one's period.
- Regulation (EU) 2016/679, Art. 5(1)(e): once the legal period expires, personal data is no longer kept "just in case".
- Periods may change through later legislation, and some documents have special rules — confirm the final list with the company's accountant.
Practical examples
- The general journal for financial year 2026 is kept, as a general rule, until the end of 2036.
- The payroll record from January 2026 stays in the archive until 2076, even if the company is reorganized in the meantime.
- A supporting document with a 5-year period, issued in March 2026, can only be disposed of after 31 December 2031.
- During an inspection, the inspector asks for a document from 2018: if the period is 10 years, the company must be able to produce it until 2028.
Common mistakes
- A single period, "10 years", is applied to every type of document.
- Payroll records are destroyed together with the rest of a personnel file, even though they have a 50-year period.
- Documents are kept forever: that is not caution, it is a GDPR compliance risk.
- The period is calculated from the document's date, not from the closing of the financial year.
- The records retention schedule has not been updated in years, even though the company has added new types of documents.
How 4docs helps
- A records schedule with a retention period configured for each document type.
- The expiry date is calculated automatically from the closing of the financial year.
- You get an alert when a file enters the month it can be disposed of.
- Documents removed from the archive stay recorded in a disposal register.