Digitization of purchase invoices (and of any other documents that needs to be stored)
It is now possible to store in digital format purchase invoices that have been received in paper format. This in fact applies to all invoices or charge and to any documents that needs to be legally stored.
Documents storage
Documents for the tax administration must be stored for at least 6 years from their creation or reception date. Commercial or contractual documents must be stored for 10 years.
If they have been received in paper format, they can now be digitized to be stored.
The rules to respect
The digitization must produce an identical copy. colors and images must be respected.
The digitization conditions are the same than the ones regarding the tax right matter. The document has then to be signed and timestamped with certificates compliant with RGS* / eIDAS advanced standards.
The 'tax value' notion relates to French standards and can only be applied to French organizations.
Finaly, the documents created must be stored in PDF or PDF A/3 (ISO 19005-3) format.
The rules to be respected
| AT MINIMUM | RECOMMENDED |
|---|---|
| colored scan in PDF format | colored scan in PDF/A format |
| signature of the PDF with either: RGS* Signature Stamp ID RGS* |
signature of the PDF with either: Signature Seal eIDAS ID eIDAS / RGS** |
| local time stamping | external time stamping |
Particular cases
URSSAF
As of July 1st, 2019 the documents intended to determine the tax base or to check the social security contributions by URSSAF can be digitized and stored in electronic format.
Follow the recommendations described above to digitize those documents.