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New Rules for Retaining Accounting Documents: What the Law of June 25, 2026 Changes

New Rules for Retaining Accounting Documents: What the Law of June 25, 2026 Changes

Published on : 28/06/2026 28 June Jun 06 2026
Firm News

Law No. 2026-534 of June 25, 2026, on combating social security and tax fraud, published in the Official Journal on June 26, 2026, significantly strengthens the requirements for retaining documents for tax purposes.

1. Extension of the Retention Period to 10 Years

The law amends Article L. 102 B of the Book of Tax Procedures: the retention period for books, records, documents, or supporting documents subject to the administration’s rights of access, investigation, and audit is extended from 6 to 10 years.

This new period applies as of the date of the last transaction recorded in the books or registers, or the date on which the documents or supporting documents were prepared. This applies in particular to accounting documents and invoices, which are subject to the right of access, accounting audits, and specific investigative procedures.

The retention period for supporting documents related to transactions eligible for input VAT deduciton is also extended from 6 to 10 years.

2. Reliable audit trail: internal controls to be kept for 10 years

The reform also aligns at 10 years the retention period for information, documents, data, IT processing or information systems that constitute the internal controls establishing the “reliable audit trail”, as well as the documentation describing these controls.

During this period, the company may retain these items in paper or electronic form, regardless of their original format.

3. Interaction with the tax authorities’ reassessment period

The stated objective is to align the document retention period with the longest reassessment periods available to the tax authorities, particularly in the event of a complaint for tax fraud, false tax residence abroad, failure to declare assets held abroad, blatant tax fraud or undeclared activity, for which the reassessment period can already reach 10 years.

Until now, in these situations the tax authorities could theoretically go back 10 years, but could not require the production of documents beyond 6 years. Extending the retention period to 10 years fills this evidentiary gap.

4. Scope and practical arrangements

The new time limits apply to all documents that may be subject to audit rights: general and subsidiary accounting records, journals, general ledger, trial balances, customer and supplier invoices, supporting documents, as well as the registers kept under the VAT one‑stop shop schemes (OSS and IOSS), which are already subject to a 10‑year retention period.

The methods of storage (paper or electronic) remain unchanged, as do the specific regimes applicable to certain operators (software publishers, internet operators, warehouse keepers, etc.).

In the event of early destruction of documents before the expiry of the retention period, the €10,000 fine provided for in Article 1734 of the French Tax Code remains applicable.

5. Entry into force and transitional period

The extension of the retention period applies to documents and records whose retention period expires after 1 January 2027.

In practice, documents whose 6‑year period expires before that date are not affected. For example, an invoice issued on 1 September 2020, for which the 6‑year period ends on 1 September 2026, is not subject to the new time limit.
Conversely, an invoice issued on 2 February 2025, which initially had to be kept until 2 February 2031, must ultimately be kept until 2 February 2035.


This article is the first in a series of posts devoted to the Law of 25 June 2026. The next ones will focus in particular on the new reporting obligations relating to the 3% tax and on the formal requirements for instruments documenting transfers of shares predominantly representing real estate assets.
 
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