Key takeaways
- In Belgium, the invoice retention period is ten years.
- This ten-year period has applied since 1 January 2023; it was seven years before.
- The period starts on 1 January of the year following the invoice date.
- E-invoices are kept as long as paper invoices, with three guarantees: authenticity, integrity, readability.
Ten years: the invoice retention period in Belgium
In Belgium, the invoice retention period is ten years. That is the period a business must keep both the invoices it issues and the ones it receives, and it applies whatever the medium, paper or electronic. The question comes up often when clearing out the archive: the answer is simple, but it changed recently.
Until 31 December 2022, this period was seven years. It was raised to ten years by the law of 20 November 2022 on various tax and financial provisions, for taxes that became due from 1 January 2023.
This article sets out what the obligation covers: the legal basis, when the period starts, the cases where you must keep records longer, and what archiving e-invoices requires in practice.
What article 60 of the VAT Code says
The obligation rests on article 60 of the Belgian VAT Code. It requires you to keep copies of the invoices you issue and the invoices you receive, along with the books and other documents whose keeping, drafting or issuance is prescribed. Since 1 January 2023, this period is ten years.
Other retention obligations frame your accounting records too, notably for income tax, each with its own period. For an invoice, keep the VAT rule in mind: it is the one that applies in practice, namely ten years counted from 1 January of the following year.
general period
invoices, books and documents (art. 60 VAT Code)
since 1 January
the period was 7 years before
immovable goods
documents tied to immovable investment goods
When the retention period starts
The retention period is not counted from the exact invoice date, but from 1 January of the following year. For an invoice dated 2026, the count therefore starts on 1 January 2027, and the invoice must be kept until the end of 2036. For accounting books, the period runs from 1 January of the year following their closing.
This rule has a practical consequence: across a business, you permanently keep a rolling window of about eleven calendar years of records. It is better to organise archiving by financial year from the start than to have to reconstruct whole years at the time of an audit.
The special cases: investment goods and buildings
The ten-year period is the general rule, but some documents are kept longer. Records relating to immovable investment goods (a building, for example) follow the VAT adjustment period specific to such goods, which runs over fifteen years. As long as that period is running, the authority can check the deduction made: the invoices and documents that justify it must remain available.
Archiving e-invoices: authenticity, integrity, readability
Moving to e-invoicing does not shorten the period: an e-invoice is kept for ten years, like a paper invoice. What changes is the guarantees you must ensure. Article 60 of the VAT Code requires, for every invoice, three cumulative conditions, from issue until the end of the retention period.
The three guarantees required for archiving
Authenticity of origin
The identity of the invoice issuer is guaranteed and cannot be called into doubt.
Integrity of content
The content of the invoice has not been altered since it was issued.
Readability
The invoice stays human-readable for the whole period, in a format that does not become obsolete.
These three guarantees apply regardless of where you store the files: on your own servers, with a provider or in the cloud. The storage location is free as long as full online access to the invoices remains possible for the authority. A structured e-invoice such as one in the UBL 2.1 format lends itself well to this archiving: its content is fixed and verifiable.
Scanning a paper invoice and then destroying the original is allowed, under the same condition: the electronic copy must be a faithful and complete reproduction, and meet the three guarantees for the whole period. That is where the evidential value of your archive is decided on the day of an audit.
Compliant invoices, archived the right way
YouInv generates your e-invoices in the right format and keeps your documents structured and accessible, ready for an audit.
What it changes for your business
The rule to remember is short: ten years, counted from 1 January of the year following the invoice, with a longer period for property records. The rest is a matter of organisation. Archiving filed by financial year, accessible online and in a durable format, turns an obligation into a formality: finding an invoice from 2024 should take a few seconds, not half a day.
It is also a criterion for choosing your tool. Beyond issuing compliant invoices, your software must be able to keep them in a structured way and guarantee their authenticity, integrity and readability over time. That is what separates plain issuance from archiving with evidential value.
Further reading
- Mandatory invoice details in Belgium: what every invoice must contain before it is archived.
- Invoicing in Belgium: rules and obligations: the general invoicing framework.
- The UBL 2.1 format explained: the structure of a storable e-invoice.
The reference source is authoritative: the retention page of the Belgian tax authority (SPF Finances / FPS Finance).
How long must invoices be kept in Belgium?
The legal retention period is ten years. Since 1 January 2023, article 60 of the Belgian VAT Code requires invoices, copies of invoices, books and other documents to be kept for ten years, up from seven years before. It applies to invoices issued and received, on paper and in electronic form alike.
When does the invoice retention period start?
The ten-year period starts on 1 January of the year following the invoice date. For accounting books it runs from 1 January of the year following their closing. An invoice from 2026 must therefore be kept until the end of 2036.
Are e-invoices kept for a shorter time?
No. The retention period is the same whether an invoice is on paper or electronic. For an e-invoice you must additionally guarantee the authenticity of origin, the integrity of content and the readability, from issue until the end of the retention period.
Are there periods longer than ten years?
Yes. For documents relating to immovable investment goods, the retention period follows the VAT adjustment period and can reach fifteen years. Keep records tied to a building longer than the standard ten years.
Can you discard a paper invoice after scanning it?
Yes, provided the electronic version kept guarantees the authenticity of origin, the integrity of content and the readability for the full legal period. The scanned copy must remain a faithful and complete reproduction of the original.
