Every GmbH and UG must use double-entry bookkeeping from day one with no exceptions; sole traders only face full accounting obligations above €800,000 revenue or €80,000 profit/year. GoBD (a binding BMF administrative regulation implementing the Fiscal Code, AO) sets audit-proof standards for electronic records — correctness, completeness, immutability, timeliness, system documentation, machine-readable access — meaning a folder of scanned PDFs does not meet the standard; compliant accounting software is effectively mandatory. Since the Fourth Bureaucracy Relief Act, the retention period for most accounting documents was shortened from 10 to 8 years (for documents whose retention period was still running on 1 January 2025), though annual statements and books must still be retained 10 years, digitally and tamper-proof.
GmbH/UG: mandatory double-entry bookkeeping from day one, no revenue-based exceptions.
Sole traders: full accounting obligations only trigger above €800,000 revenue or €80,000 profit/year.
GoBD requires audit-proof electronic record standards (correctness, completeness, immutability, timeliness) — scanned PDF folders don't qualify; compliant software is effectively required.
Document retention: most documents shortened from 10 to 8 years (Fourth Bureaucracy Relief Act); annual statements/books still require 10-year, digital, tamper-proof retention.
Timelines
Standard document retention (post-reform): 8 years
Annual statements/books retention: 10 years
Required Documents
GoBD-compliant accounting software
Annual financial statements (Jahresabschluss)
Common Mistakes
Using scanned PDFs stored on a desktop as a bookkeeping solution — this does not meet GoBD's audit-proof immutability and traceability standards.
Assuming the shortened 8-year retention period applies to annual statements/books — those still require the full 10-year retention.