(Archived) HELP: Official documents that can be scanned according to (German) law

[grossermanitu 0]

Hello everyone,

I just want to tell you that Im affected. I upgraded evernote to pro, bought a scanner and now I am scanning ever peace of paper that I can grab. :-) Today i had a conversation with our accountants' department in my company. I proudly told them that I started scanning my monthly payroll accounting (Lohnabrechnung) and social insurance certificate (Sozialversicherungsbescheinigung). They told me that I need all this documents as original documents and that a copy is not adequate. So far,I havent destroyed any of this documents. But I would like to. :-) Cause thats the idea behind this job. Becoming free of all unnecessary paper stuff.

So maybe here are some germans who have experience with archiving important documents, that could tell me which official documents for law, pension and so on are mandatory to keep in original state. BTW: This shouldnt be only a geman discussion, Im curious how people from other nations are handling this issue. :-)

THX

[gazumped 11,713]

I'm in the UK and we're moving towards a paper-free society, but there are serious hold-outs. I took a faulty item back to a store recently and despite the fact I was standing there with a paper copy of the receipt and a 1.5 metre (4 foot) box plainly shouting the store logo, 'customer service' firmly stated the store policy: it must be an original receipt. Confusingly the store was able to find its copy of my receipt fairly easily (the item was bought 2 days earlier) and then everything was fine. Still no original receipt, but we'll gladly exchange the item...

So. I scan and shred/ bin everything that I can, but large ticket items go into a 'receipts' folder, and some official documents go into a small filing cabinet after being scanned. I tag the scans with their location, and use the scanned copy unless I'm asked for an original. My filing shelves used to be metres long but the drawer space occupied by the forms is only a hands breadth.

There's no central listing of what forms are required in original form, but common sense usually applies - birth marriage and death certificates, wills and property papers are pretty obvious. The UK of course also includes the semi-autonomous Welsh and Scottish, so there's probably some regional variation too.

[JMichaelTX 4,117]

I proudly told them that I started scanning my monthly payroll accounting (Lohnabrechnung) and social insurance certificate (Sozialversicherungsbescheinigung). They told me that I need all this documents as original documents and that a copy is not adequate. So far,I havent destroyed any of this documents.

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[peterfmartin 221]

grossermanitu's question was about the legalities of physical documents, not digital ones:

So maybe here are some germans who have experience with archiving important documents, that could tell me which official documents for law, pension and so on are mandatory to keep in original state.

[bduncan 49]

Here in Canada, the CRA has said that they require the original documentation in its original form, so they will not (depending on the auditor of course) accept scanned copies only.

So, scan away but hold on to that paper in Canada.