Scan instead of original: what the UGB and BAO say about digital retention

Yes, in principle: the Austrian Commercial Code (Unternehmensgesetzbuch, UGB) and the Federal Fiscal Code (Bundesabgabenordnung, BAO) allow business documents to be kept on data carriers instead of on paper – that is, as scans too. The condition is that a complete, orderly, identical and faithful reproduction of the original is ensured at all times until the end of the retention period. However, this is not a licence to throw away all originals: for some documents, the evidential value depends on the original. This article explains the basic principles – it provides general guidance and is not binding legal advice; clarify doubtful cases with your tax adviser or lawyer.

In brief

• The UGB and BAO allow books, records and receipts to be kept on data carriers – in principle, the scan can replace the paper.
• The condition is a complete, orderly, identical and faithful reproduction of the original, readable at any time until the end of the period.
• The basic period is seven years; for documents relating to real property, twenty-two years apply under the VAT Act.
• Deeds and contracts bearing an original signature should be kept in the original despite being scanned, because their evidential value may depend on it.
• Archiving in a legally valid way means above all: scan cleanly, file immutably, name in an orderly way, back up – and keep readable for years.

What do the UGB and BAO say about digital retention?

Both laws govern the obligation to retain business documents: the UGB for business owners, the BAO for tax purposes. Books, records, receipts and the associated business papers must in principle be kept for seven years – counted from the end of the calendar year to which they relate.

Both laws expressly allow these documents to be kept and retained on data carriers. The BAO sets out the central condition: a complete, orderly, identical and faithful reproduction of the original must be ensured at all times until the end of the retention period. In plain terms: the scan must show everything the original shows, must not change anything, must be organised so it can be found – and must be capable of being opened and read until the end of the retention period (as a rule seven years, up to 22 years for real property). The legal texts are available in the Austrian federal legal information system RIS (ris.bka.gv.at); the Austrian Economic Chamber offers a practical overview of retention obligations (wko.at).

Which periods apply to which documents?

Documents	Period (basic principles)
Books, records, receipts, business papers	In principle seven years
Documents relating to real property	Twenty-two years under the VAT Act
Documents relating to pending tax or court proceedings	Beyond the basic period, for as long as the proceedings are ongoing

Two practical notes on this: first, it pays not to calculate too tightly – if you keep documents a few years longer across the board, you spare yourself discussions about borderline cases. Second, the period applies to readability, not just to the existence of the file: a data carrier that no device can read any more does not fulfil the obligation.

How do the retention obligation and the GDPR obligation to erase fit together?

At first glance, two obligations contradict each other: the GDPR requires that personal data is not stored for longer than necessary – the UGB and BAO require retention for years. The contradiction resolves itself: as long as a statutory retention obligation is running, it is precisely this obligation that provides the legal basis for storage; if a data subject requests erasure, an ongoing statutory retention obligation can stand in the way of erasure.

Once the period has expired, the picture is reversed: there is then often no basis for further retention of documents containing personal data, and the archive should be cleaned up according to an erasure concept – most easily with filing by year, which can be checked and erased as a whole. A digital archive is even superior to the paper cellar here: it can show the periods for each year and at least bring the due erasure up for review.

When should you keep the original anyway?

The retention obligation under the UGB and BAO is one level – evidential value in a dispute is the other. In civil proceedings, the authenticity of a deed can be decisive, and this is easier to prove with the original than with a copy. That is why a cautious rule of practice applies: documents for which the original signature or the original document could one day matter do go into the digital archive, but the paper is also kept in a folder. These typically include:

• notarial or notarised deeds,
• important contracts, especially those with a long term or a high potential for dispute,
• guarantees, powers of attorney, acknowledgements of debt,
• company law documents.

The effort is manageable: in most companies, this category makes up a small fraction of the paper. The bulk – incoming invoices, delivery notes, till receipts – is well suited to purely digital retention.

What should the scanning process look like? Six steps

1. Capture completely: All pages, including reverse sides with content. Multi-page records as one document, not as loose individual images.
2. Check quality: The scan must remain easily readable over time – spot checks belong in the process, especially for thermal paper receipts, which fade in the original anyway.
3. File immutably: The archive must prevent subsequent changes or at least log them traceably. A writable folder in which anyone can swap files does not meet this requirement.
4. Name in an orderly way: A uniform scheme (for example year, record type, business partner), so that the “orderly reproduction” does not fail because of chaos.
5. Back up: Regular data backup at a second location – losing the archive is the emergency that the retention period does not forgive.
6. Plan for readability over years: Choose an established format (in practice usually PDF/A), and take the old stock along and test it when changing systems.

If you put these six points into practice, you have covered the core of “faithful reproduction of the original” organisationally. However, only professional advice can give a binding assessment of the individual case – especially if you want to destroy large amounts of old stock, that is money well invested.

Where does the digital archive belong – accounting, DMS or knowledge base?

An honest distinction: the leading system for records is and remains your accounting or ERP system. That is where invoices, delivery notes and accounting records belong, that is where they are checked and that is where the tax audit expects them too. The ERP knows what happened.

A knowledge base adds value where context and knowledge are needed – it knows how things are done: the maintenance instructions behind the service order, the handover record behind the final invoice, the correspondence showing why a solution was chosen the way it was. It is exactly this experience that is missing when searching in everyday work. An AI knowledge base makes it searchable and answers questions about it with the source document named – every answer thus remains verifiable, because AI can make mistakes too. The data is stored on EU servers and is not used to train third-party models.

What else needs to be considered when filing documents containing personal data – from access rights to erasure periods – is covered in the overview AI and the GDPR in Austria.

As a next step: get an overview of which mountains of paper in your company are actually still mandatory and which could have been digital long ago – and clarify the borderline cases with your tax adviser. How the introduction of a searchable document and knowledge store works is shown on the page about the Process of the introduction.