The obligation to store documents, including during liquidation

LEGAL DIGEST, NEWS \ 19.10.2022

Please be reminded of the necessity to store documents that have not expired yet. This requirement is also applied to companies undergoing liquidation.

Organizations are required to store documents provided for by federal laws and other statutory enactments of the Russian Federation. This requirement is applied to all companies, regardless of their organizational and legal form and form of incorporation, as well as to companies undergoing liquidation.

As a rule, the following types of documents are subject to storage:

• HR documents: on the accounting of labour, salary, settlements with the staff, etc.;
• accounting documents: accounting reports, basic source documents, accounting policy, inventory cards, etc.;
• tax documents: invoices, purchase/sale ledgers, tax declarations;
• constituent documents: certificate of registration, charter, orders and directions;
• statistical documents: data on the company’s activities.

Each document has its own retention period. It can be:

• permanent (provided for documents that are associated with the business activities of the organization);
• long-term, with a retention period of more than 50 years (applicable for historical notes or for HR documentation);
• temporary, with a retention period of less than 10 years (provided for most accounting, tax and other documents).

For more information about the composition of documents and their retention period, see the table below.

This list is not exhaustive. More detailed information about the retention periods of each document is contained in the List No. 236 of the Federal Archival Agency (Russian acronym – “Rosarkhiv”) dated December 20, 2019.

Please be reminded that document retention period should be calculated from January 1 of the year following the year in which such document was drawn up and accepted for recording.

The head is responsible for storing documents in the organization. However, he or she can transfer such powers to another employee (for example, the chief accountant) on the basis of an order. The HR Department is responsible for the storage of HR documents. In a large company, an archivist may be responsible for organizing the storage of papers.

Current documents that the company is currently working with or that have a temporary retention period can be stored in specialized cabinets or safes. Archival documents for which the paperwork is completed are stored in the archives.

In case of liquidation of the company, the responsibility for the storage of documents is assigned to the liquidation commission (liquidator). After the company is recognized as liquidated one – entering such information into the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, the documents should be stored in the state or municipal archive. After the document expires, it has to be destroyed.

For non-compliance with legislation in the field of storage of accounting and tax documents, the organization faces liability in the form of a fine in the amount of:

• 10,000 rubles – in case of non-submission of documents for one tax period;
• 30,000 rubles – in case of non-submission of documents for several tax periods;
• 20% of the sum of tax losses, but not less than 40,000 rubles – if the absence of documents led to an understatement of the tax base.

For officers for the absence of basic source documents, accounting ledgers and reporting during the established storage periods of such documents, the amount of the fine is 5,000-10,000 rubles. In case of repeated violation, the fine may be increased to 20,000 rubles or disqualification for a period of 1 up to 2 years is provided.

In the matters of carrying out of the procedure for the registration, retention and destruction of documents, please contact Acsour’s specialists.