Do You Have to Keep Paper Receipts? (Switzerland, 2026)

As of: July 2026 · This article is not legal advice.

No. Accounting vouchers such as receipts, invoices and cash-register slips may be kept purely digitally in Switzerland, provided the GeBüV requirements are met. Only the annual report and the audit report must exist in written, signed form (Art. 958f para. 2 CO). Originals that carry evidentiary weight are additionally kept on a voluntary basis.

Important: these rules apply to Switzerland — in Germany, different rules apply under the GoBD. The conditions for going “digital only” (integrity, findability, protection against loss) are explained in detail in our GeBüV guide.

Which documents must be kept in paper form?

• Annual report (financial statements) — in written, signed form
• Audit report — in written, signed form
• Recommended (not mandatory): contracts and deeds whose original signature carries evidentiary value in a dispute

That is the complete list. Everything else — supplier invoices, receipts, expense receipts, cash-register slips, bank statements — may be destroyed after GeBüV-compliant digitization. The “paper obligation” for the annual and audit report strictly means “signed”: under the prevailing legal opinion, a qualified electronic signature with a qualified time stamp is treated as equivalent to a handwritten signature (Art. 14 para. 2bis CO) — so reports signed with a QES and a qualified time stamp do not have to be additionally kept on paper. Only without a QES do you need one printed, signed copy of each.

Document type by document type

Almost everything may be digital — the only exception is the signed annual and audit report.

Document type	Digital-only allowed?	Note
Cash-register slip / receipt	✅	A scan/photo suffices; thermal paper fades long before the 10 years are up anyway — which is why the German tax authorities even expressly require thermal receipts to be copied (sec. 14b.1 para. 5 UStAE)
PDF invoice from the supplier	✅	Already is the original — there is no paper original
Contract	✅	Additionally keeping the signed original is established practice: scans are admissible physical records in court (Art. 177 CPC), but the authenticity of a contested signature can only be verified on the original
Bank statements, payslips, expenses	✅	Provided the filing is GeBüV-compliant
Annual report / audit report	Only with QES	Signed — on paper or electronically with a qualified electronic signature (Art. 958f para. 2 CO)

The conditions for “digital only”

Digital replaces paper only when all three requirements are met together.

Digital replaces paper only if the filing is done properly:

1. Unaltered: the document is stored exactly as it is, and changes would be detectable (Art. 3 and 9 GeBüV).
2. Findable: every document can be assigned to an entry and produced within a reasonable period (Art. 6 GeBüV).
3. Protected against loss: documents must be kept “carefully, in an orderly manner and protected against harmful effects” (Art. 5 GeBüV) — in practice this means: more than one copy in more than one place.

Google Drive meets these technical conditions — our fiduciary’s assessment.

The FTA also points to the allocation of risk: whoever destroys the original bears the risk if the digital copy does not meet the requirements (VAT Info 16). Point 3 is the one most often neglected: whoever files all documents exclusively in their accounting software has exactly one copy — held by the provider, tied to an active subscription. With bexio, for example, there is no self-service full export, and bexio itself recommends keeping documents “additionally outside of bexio”. An automatic second copy in your own storage (e.g. a Google Drive mirror via quintio.ch) closes this gap with no extra effort.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Can receipts also be kept digitally? Yes — paper, electronic and comparable forms are treated as equivalent, provided their correspondence with the business transaction is guaranteed and the documents can be made legible at any time (Art. 958f para. 3 CO). For how to set up your digital filing sensibly, see the template for accounting filing.

Which documents may not be kept digitally? Only the annual report and the audit report must exist in written, signed form. All accounting vouchers may be archived digitally.

In what form must invoices be kept? In Switzerland, format-neutral: a paper invoice, a scanned paper invoice and an electronic invoice are treated as equivalent (FTA VAT Info 16) — what matters is the GeBüV requirements, not the medium. (Germany’s GoBD “no media discontinuity” rule does not apply in Switzerland.)

How long must receipts be kept? 10 years from the end of the financial year (Art. 958f para. 1 CO); documents relating to immovable property, 20 years (Art. 70 para. 3 VAT Act) and until the tax limitation period is reached. All periods, who is obliged and what violations mean: retention periods in Switzerland. The end date per document type and year is shown by the retention period calculator.

Is a phone photo enough as a receipt? Yes — the law prescribes nothing about the capture device (accounting vouchers are defined in a medium-neutral way, Art. 957a para. 3 CO). The photo must be fully legible, assignable to the entry and filed unchanged thereafter.

May I throw away paper receipts after scanning? In principle yes — except for the annual report/audit report. For contracts with an evidentially relevant original signature: keep the original as well (a recommendation, not an obligation).

Does this also apply to private individuals’ tax returns? The GeBüV concerns commercial accounting. Most cantonal tax authorities today accept digitally submitted receipts (upload in the online tax return); even so, keep your receipts at least until the assessment is legally final — what governs is the practice of your canton.

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Sources

• Art. 957a / 958f CO (SR 220, Fedlex) · GeBüV (SR 221.431) · Art. 177 CPC
• SECO SME Portal: electronic retention of the books of account
• FTA VAT Info 16 “Accounting and Invoicing”, no. 1.6 (equal treatment of invoice forms, risk note)
• Thermal paper: sec. 14b.1 para. 5 UStAE (DE)