The Company’s archive keeps growing year after year and yet the storage space is still limited, often the question of selecting material to destroy and free up space arises, but there is always the question of whether I will need a document to verify a transaction, to meet the Labor Inspectorate or the Treasury, or to prove obligations of a commercial nature.
We hope to facilitate the task of periodically cleaning up the Company’s archives, with some basic guidelines for managing the different types of documents.
The tax regulation establishes a period of four years to review taxes, to be computed as from the last day of the voluntary period for filing tax returns for each tax. Thus, if the deadline for corporate income tax usually ends on July 25 of each year referring to the previous year, you will have to keep all accounting documentation until five years have elapsed. However, if losses have been generated in a fiscal year that give rise to a negative taxable income to be offset against future profits, then the period is extended to 11 years (from 2017 to 2028).
Commercial legislation establishes through the Commercial Code that businessmen must keep their accounting books, correspondence, documentation and supporting documents concerning their business, duly ordered, for six years from the last entry made in the books. However, there are recommendations for the indefinite retention of official accounting records, signed Annual Accounts, long-term contracts (depreciable capital assets), and backup copies of official documents and correspondence.
The framework of document conservation of the Company of a fiscal and mercantile nature ends up diluting the term of conservation of the documentation regulated by the labor regulations, since according to the Law of Infringements and Penalties in the Social Order establishes a term of four years to reach the statute of limitations. However, the salary and social security costs that are included in the profit and loss account have accounting, commercial and tax implications, thus exceeding the four years of the labor regulation.
