According to the Portuguese VAT code and Decree-Law no. 28/2019, companies may store supporting accounting documents, such as receipts and invoices, fully electronically, if the requirements explained below are met. This also applies to documents that were originally issued in paper form, later digitised and stored in digital form. This digitisation and storage can be done by a third party such as Rydoo. You do not need to keep the original paper receipts after digitisation.
Portuguese law defines a set of requirements for the digitisation and digital storage of documents such as receipts and invoices:
- Conservation and location: Invoices and receipts need to be filed and kept in good order for a minimum of 10 years in the European Union. During this period storage safety, integrity controls and backup availability must be guaranteed.
- Identification, accessibility, integrity and readability: The documents (as well as copies on paper upon request) should be accessible and readable to the Portuguese Tax Authorities. Integrity, accuracy, reliability and immutability need to be ensured. Additionally, the documents need to be stored sequentially.
- Third-party requirements: All records need to have a checksum (unique identification number) and there should be a possibility to transfer all digitised documents to the company.
Rydoo obtained a legal opinion concerning Rydoo’s compliance with the requirements listed in the Portuguese VAT code and the provisions established in Decree-Law no. 28/2019. You can thus go paperless with Rydoo. Please check with our team to get a copy of the legal opinion.