Administration
FDP politicians for shorter retention periods for documents
Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (l) and Federal Minister of Finance Christian Lindner (both FDP) take part in a meeting of the Federal Cabinet in the Federal Chancellery. photo
© Kay Nietfeld/dpa
Federal Justice Minister Buschmann and Federal Finance Minister Lindner want to shorten the retention periods for accounting documents.
There could soon be a lot of free space on the shelves and cellars of German companies, at least if the Federal Minister of Justice has it up to him Marco Buschmann and Federal Minister of Finance Christian Lindner (both FDP) go.
“Together with the Federal Minister of Finance, I am promoting that we reduce, for example, commercial and tax retention periods for accounting documents from ten to seven years,” said Buschmann of the German Press Agency. “Mountains of paper could disappear from the warehouses of German companies and make room for new ideas,” explained the FDP politician. This would noticeably reduce the effort, especially for small and medium-sized companies.
According to Buschmann, the proposal by the two FDP ministers is part of the cornerstones of a bureaucracy relief law that his ministry intends to present at a cabinet meeting planned for the end of August at Meseberg Castle.
The justice minister said that in view of the current difficult economic situation, it was clear to him: “In the second half of the election period, our top priority must be to strengthen the country economically.” The removal of bureaucratic obstacles is an important factor here. “Unfortunately, the bottom line is that the bureaucratic requirements have also increased under the new federal government,” Buschmann stated. He added: “We have to turn things around now.”