As a private individual, there is basically no obligation to keep your tax return and tax documents. Self-employed people, on the other hand, must keep tax documents relevant to their business. It is advisable for everyone to keep their own original documents until the final tax assessment is available.
Are there any exceptions to the tax return?
The big exception is the self-employed, who have to document their income and expenses and provide receipts. Such receipts must be kept for 10 years (source: Bern Tax Administration). These include:
- Business books and annual financial statements, this is handled for self-employed persons with the form “simplified accounting”
- All accounting documents or invoices of income and expenses
- Depending on the canton, the “simplified accounting” is not so easy, especially when it comes to claiming deductions. Topics here are
- statement of depreciation
- liquidation profits
- Agriculture and Forestry
- Qualified Participations in Business Assets
- Additional deduction R&D and patent box

What should you do as a property owner?
Owners of a home or property should document and retain all invoices and construction work. Tax assessments and notices relating to the maintenance of a property should also be retained.
Depending on the canton, it can take 20 years or more before the tax relevance ceases to apply. In general, it is advisable to keep the documents for up to 5 years after the sale of a property.
What is the best way to store tax documents?
Many people continue to work with paper and folders. However, if the above exceptions apply, it is advisable to create a digital filing system.
How does the tax advisor store the documents?
Tax consultancies work on a mandate basis. As long as a mandate relationship exists, ie an order is in progress, the documents are retained for processing. If this relationship ends, or the client wishes to have their data deleted, no more data is available.