Can I throw away paper receipts? The rules in Sweden now

You have a shoebox of receipts from 2023 in the wardrobe and an app on your phone that photographs everything new. The question is whether the box can go. In most cases the answer is yes, but only if the images actually hold up.

The three-year rule disappeared in July 2024

Until summer 2024 you could not throw away the original until the fourth year after the end of the financial year, even if you had scanned it. That rule was removed on 1 July 2024 through government bill 2023/24:78. A paper receipt or invoice can now be destroyed as soon as the information has been transferred to another document, such as a scanned file or a photo, under chapter 7 section 6 of the bokföringslagen (the Swedish Accounting Act).

The transitional rules mean this also covers old material. If you have already scanned the receipts in the box properly, you no longer need to keep the paper, according to the bill. If you have not scanned them, the order is simple. Scan first, then bin.

One condition, and it carries weight

The transfer must not create a risk that the räkenskapsinformation (accounting records) is altered or lost. That is judged on technical methods, organisational measures and other circumstances, as the Swedish Accounting Standards Board, BFN, explains. In practice you need to be able to show that the image is complete and legible, and that it cannot get lost.

Do this before the paper goes in the recycling:

• Check that the whole receipt is visible, with date, seller’s name, amount and VAT.
• Look at the image at full size, not just the thumbnail. Thermal paper with faded print is the most common trap.
• Attach the file to the right verifikation (voucher) in your books the same week.
• Make sure the files are backed up somewhere other than the same phone.

The last point is the one that usually fails. A phone dropped in a lake with two years of receipts on it is exactly the kind of risk the law is talking about. If you are unsure whether an image is good enough, keep the paper. It costs you one binder.

Seven years, counted from the right end

Throwing away the paper does not mean you can throw away the information. Accounting records must be kept until the end of the seventh year after the calendar year in which the financial year ended, under chapter 7 section 2 of the Accounting Act. The Swedish Tax Agency, Skatteverket, describes the same requirement as archiving for at least seven years.

An example. If your company uses the calendar year as its financial year, the 2026 financial year ends on 31 December 2026. The records must then be kept until 31 December 2033. If you instead have a non-calendar financial year running from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026, it also ends during 2026, so the last day is the same. That gives seven years and six months from the end of the financial year, which BFN also points out.

Plenty of people get this wrong by a year. Receipts from 2026 may not be deleted during 2033, only from 2034 onwards.

Keep the PDF invoice as a PDF

The new rule is mostly about paper. Invoices that arrive as a PDF by email or as an e-invoice are electronic accounting records. The main rule is that they are kept in the format and with the content they had when they reached the company, according to the bill. So do not print the PDF and delete the email, keep the file.

That also makes life easier. An invoice that arrived as a PDF never needs scanning, and you never have to wonder whether the copy is good enough.

A cloud service abroad means telling Skatteverket

As a main rule, accounting records are kept in Sweden. Electronic material may be stored in another country, typically a cloud service with servers in the EU. In that case you must tell Skatteverket where the storage is, be able to print the information in Sweden straight away, and be able to give Skatteverket immediate electronic access if they ask. This follows from chapter 7 section 3 a of the Accounting Act and BFN’s questions and answers on archiving. Storage outside the EU comes with further requirements.

Many small business owners have never sent that notice, even though their receipt app keeps everything on servers in Ireland or Germany. Find out where your service stores its data. How the notice is submitted in practice is something you should check directly with Skatteverket, as there is no obvious form to point you to.

Before you empty the box

Pull ten random receipts out of the box, find the matching image in your books and check that it is readable at full size. If you find all ten and they are sharp, you can throw the box out. If even one is missing or unreadable, rescan the whole box first.