GoBD

What GoBD means

GoBD stands for "Grundsätze zur ordnungsmäßigen Führung und Aufbewahrung von Büchern, Aufzeichnungen und Unterlagen in elektronischer Form sowie zum Datenzugriff" — the principles for the proper keeping and retention of books, records and documents in electronic form, and for data access. It is an administrative directive of the German Federal Ministry of Finance (last fully revised in 2019, with later updates) that spells out how tax offices expect digital bookkeeping to work in practice. It applies to every business that keeps records relevant for German taxation — from a solo creator to a multi-brand agency group.

The core principles

Retention and documentation

Records must be retained for statutory periods — currently eight years for accounting documents such as invoices and ten years for books, inventories and financial statements, after the Fourth Bureaucracy Relief Act (Viertes Bürokratieentlastungsgesetz) shortened some periods from 2025. Businesses also need a Verfahrensdokumentation: a written description of how documents are created, processed, protected and archived, including the software involved.

In agency practice

Talent agencies produce a high volume of outgoing invoices and creator credit notes every month, which makes them exposed on exactly the points auditors check first: editable Word invoices, deleted drafts and improvised numbering. Formally deficient bookkeeping can entitle the tax office to estimate additional income (Hinzuschätzung) even where nothing was hidden. TalentM addresses the structural points by design: invoices receive gap-free sequential numbers per agency, and finalized documents are immutable — corrections generate cancellation documents rather than edits.

GoBD interprets statutory duties from the Fiscal Code (§§ 145–147 AO) and VAT law (§ 14b UStG); for how the principles apply to your specific setup, consult your tax advisor.