How Long to Keep Invoices: Record Retention Rules by Country

Quick answer: How long to keep invoices depends on where you are taxed, but most countries require five to ten years. The US IRS generally asks for three to seven years depending on the situation, the UK generally six years for companies and VAT records, Canada six years, Australia five years, and Germany eight years for invoices. Keep both the invoices you issue and the invoices you receive.

This guide summarises common retention periods by country, explains when the clock starts, covers digital storage, and gives you a simple retention policy you can adopt. If you create invoices with our free invoice generator, download and file each PDF as you send it, because your browser draft is not a long-term archive.

Important: This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Retention periods depend on the type of record, your business structure, your industry and local law, and they can change. The figures below are common minimums; check your tax authority's guidance or ask an accountant for your situation.

Why invoice retention matters

Invoices are primary evidence for the income you report, the expenses you deduct and any VAT, GST or sales tax you charge or reclaim. If a tax authority opens an inquiry and you cannot produce the records, it may disallow deductions or input tax credits, estimate your income, and apply penalties. Invoices also matter outside tax: in contract disputes, insurance claims, due diligence when selling a business, and when chasing an unpaid debt.

Retention applies to the whole invoice trail, not just the invoices that were paid. Keep voided and cancelled invoices together with a note explaining why they were voided, because a gap in your numbering sequence is one of the first things an examiner asks about. Keep each invoice in the form you actually sent it, rather than a later edited version, so the copy you produce matches the copy your customer holds. And when a record finally passes its retention period, dispose of it securely: invoices carry names, addresses, bank details and tax IDs, so shred paper copies and permanently delete digital ones rather than leaving them in an old shared folder.

How long to keep invoices: retention periods by country

The table shows commonly cited general minimums. Many have exceptions and longer periods for specific records.

Country	Typical minimum for invoices and business records	Notes
United States (federal)	3 years from filing, generally	6 years if income is underreported by more than 25%; 7 years for bad debt or worthless securities claims; employment tax records 4 years; no limit if no return or fraud. States may differ.
United Kingdom	Companies: 6 years from end of the financial year. Sole traders: at least 5 years after the 31 January filing deadline	VAT records generally 6 years. Longer in some cases, e.g. ongoing inquiries.
Canada	6 years from the end of the last tax year they relate to	Longer if a return is filed late or under objection.
Australia	5 years	Generally from when records were prepared or the transaction completed, whichever is later.
Germany	8 years for invoices and accounting vouchers	Reduced from 10 years for records whose period had not expired by 2025; books and financial statements remain at 10 years.
France	6 years for tax purposes	Commercial law generally requires accounting documents for 10 years.
Other EU countries	Set nationally, commonly 5–10 years	The EU VAT Directive lets each member state set its own period.
United Arab Emirates	VAT records generally 5 years; corporate tax records 7 years	Longer periods apply for certain real estate records.
India	About 6 years under GST	Generally counted from the due date of the annual return.
Pakistan	Commonly cited as 6 years	Check the Income Tax Ordinance, Sales Tax Act and provincial rules for your situation.

If you trade in several countries, follow the longest period that applies to each record. For US businesses, our USA invoice generator and, for UK businesses, the UK invoice generator set the right local defaults on new invoices.

When does the retention clock start?

This is the detail most people get wrong. The period usually runs from the end of a tax year, the filing date, or the end of a financial year, not from the invoice date. An invoice dated January 2026 for a calendar-year US business may need to be kept until at least April 2030 under the basic three-year rule (three years after the return filed in April 2027), and longer if any extended period applies.

Example	Clock starts	Earliest safe disposal under the general rule
UK limited company, year ending 31 March 2026	31 March 2026	After 31 March 2032
UK sole trader, tax year 2025–26	31 January 2027 filing deadline	After 31 January 2032
Canadian business, 2026 tax year	End of the 2026 tax year	After the end of 2032

These are illustrations of the general rule only. Late filing, amendments and open inquiries can all extend the period.

Records to keep alongside your invoices

• Sales invoices you issued, including voided ones and their explanation.
• Credit notes and debit notes, with references to the original invoices; see our credit note guide.
• Purchase invoices and receipts that support expenses and input tax claims.
• Bank and payment processor statements showing when invoices were paid.
• Contracts, purchase orders and statements of work behind larger invoices.
• Tax forms such as W-9s and 1099s in the US; see W-9 vs 1099 for contractors.
• Exemption and resale certificates, and evidence supporting zero-rated exports.
• Records of assets for as long as you own them, plus the retention period after disposal.

Expense records are particularly important for the self-employed, whose deductions depend on them; see our guide to self-employed tax deductions.

Storing invoices digitally

Most tax authorities accept electronic records, but they expect them to be complete, readable, secure and retrievable for the whole period. A practical setup looks like this:

1. Save a PDF of every invoice the moment you issue it. Treat the sent PDF as the record, not an editable draft.
2. Use a consistent file name, such as 2026/INV-2026-0042-ClientName.pdf, built around your invoice number. Our invoice numbering system guide and invoice number generator make this easy.
3. Store files in at least two places, for example cloud storage plus an offline backup.
4. Keep folders by tax year so you can find and later dispose of a whole year at once.
5. Check legibility: scans and PDFs should print clearly. Our invoice PDF print checklist helps.
6. Export before you switch software. If a subscription ends, you still need the records.

Where structured e-invoicing is mandatory, the XML file is usually the legal original and must be stored in its original form; see our e-invoicing guide. Some countries also set conditions for scanning paper invoices and destroying the originals, so check before you shred.

When to keep invoices longer

• While a tax inquiry, audit or appeal is open.
• While a contract dispute or legal claim is possible or ongoing.
• For invoices relating to long-life assets, property or capital improvements.
• Where your industry has its own record-keeping rules, such as regulated financial or healthcare businesses.
• When you have elected or claimed something that a later year depends on, such as carried-forward losses.

A simple invoice retention policy

If you want one rule that works for most small businesses, adopt something like this and review it with your accountant:

• Keep all invoices, credit notes and supporting records for at least the longest statutory period that applies to you, and seven years at minimum if you are unsure.
• Keep asset and property records for as long as you own the asset plus that period.
• Once a year, after confirming no inquiries are open, securely delete or shred the year that has passed its retention period.

Good retention is part of everyday bookkeeping for small business, not a once-a-year job.

Create and archive your next invoice

Open the invoice generator, create your invoice, download the PDF and file it in this year's folder straight away. A clean, print-friendly layout such as the Mono invoice template stays legible years later, even in black-and-white.