What can your Taiwan subsidiary retrieve after its old bookkeeping account is closed? A financial-report PDF sent to the US parent may leave the underlying books and documents elsewhere. In a lawful tax investigation, the business must present records establishing sales and income within the specified time. Article 28-1 of Taiwan's tax record rules places that obligation on the business.
Count from completion of annual closing
Article 38 of the Business Entity Accounting Act generally requires accounting documents to be kept for at least five years after annual closing procedures are completed. Books and financial statements require at least ten years. Changing providers is not the starting point.
Documents requiring permanent preservation or concerning unsettled accounting matters are outside the ordinary five-year rule; books and financial statements concerning unsettled matters also cannot be cleared out solely because ten years have passed. Electronic records follow the same periods and exceptions, under Article 9 of the electronic accounting regulations. A handover inventory can record the year, type, date annual closing procedures were completed, and unsettled matters behind each retention decision.
A scan does not settle paper disposal
May the old provider empty the archive boxes once scanning finishes? Articles 26 and 27 set out the general route for replacing paper with electronically stored records. The year's profit-seeking enterprise income tax return must have undergone tax-authority investigation and assessment. Approval from the competent tax authority, storage in sequence and continued retention for the statutory period follow. Unsettled matters are excluded; permanently retained documents are also excluded from the document-disposal route.
There is a separate exception for qualifying electronic records of public-issuing companies, financial holding companies, securities, futures, banking, bills-finance, trust and insurance businesses, and their subsidiaries. Foreign ownership alone does not establish eligibility. Source documents originally issued, transmitted or received electronically are addressed by Article 21, which requires storage on a medium. Identify which records began electronically and which were scanned later.
Disasters have their own exception. For books, Article 26 recognizes destruction or loss through force-majeure disasters verified by the tax authority. An unexplained missing file during a provider change does not, by itself, establish that exception.
Location and readability survive the change
Books and documents generally must remain at the business premises for inspection. The exceptions in Article 25 concern urgent prevention of force-majeure disaster losses, official examination by the relevant agencies, and delivery to a qualified CPA for audit and certification. Ordinary outsourced bookkeeping is not automatically that last exception.
Open the transferred files. Article 28-1 permits electronic submission of specified records, including compliant electronic accounting records and source documents issued, transmitted or received electronically. If investigators cannot read them or fully display their contents, the business remains responsible for printing or providing the books, documents or related material. A filename proves little about accessibility.
The manual belongs in the transition
Article 3 of the Regulations on Businesses Electronically Processing the Accounting Data requires written internal controls covering matters such as access, input and output verification, and backups. Articles 10 and 11 require an updated processing manual. It must be included in the handover when the relevant handling or supervising accounting personnel leave or change duties. Account-code mappings to Chinese names and backup and recovery procedures are among its required contents.
Check the contractual handover date too. Return of originals and file formats also require comparison of the contract and work performed. These provisions do not establish one universal return deadline for every provider. A practical acceptance record could distinguish the following. It is not a prescribed legal form.
| Material received | Acceptance question |
|---|---|
| Books, documents and financial statements | Which years, missing periods, paper locations and unsettled matters are covered? |
| Electronic files and access rights | Can the successor open and fully display or print them? |
| Manuals and backups | Are account-code mappings, restoration steps and personnel handover records available? |
Before ending the old provider's access, the successor can try tracing one accounting period from ledger entries to supporting documents. Record what could actually be retrieved alongside what was delivered. Audit and tax-certification thresholds are addressed in the Taiwan accounting guide.
Official sources
- Business Entity Accounting Act, Article 38
- Tax authority rules on business accounting books and documents, Articles 21, 25–27 and 28-1 (稅捐稽徵機關管理營利事業會計帳簿憑證辦法)
- Regulations on Businesses Electronically Processing the Accounting Data, Articles 3 and 9–11
Sources checked October 14, 2026. These Taiwan subsidiary requirements do not replace any separate US parent-company filing or retention duties.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Does the retention period restart when we change bookkeepers?
- Article 38 of the Business Entity Accounting Act counts from completion of annual closing procedures. The general minimum is five years for accounting documents and ten for books and financial statements. Documents requiring permanent preservation and records concerning unsettled accounting matters have exceptions. Changing providers is not the statutory starting point.
- Can we destroy paper receipts after scanning them?
- Scanning alone does not satisfy the general procedure in Articles 26 and 27 of the tax record rules. That procedure includes tax-authority assessment of the year's income tax return, approval for electronic storage, orderly storage and continued retention. Unsettled matters and permanently retained documents are excluded as applicable. Certain companies have a separate statutory exception.
- What if only the old provider can open the files?
- Contractual handover terms do not remove the need to present records in an investigation. Article 28-1 makes the business responsible for printing or providing books, documents or related material if investigators cannot read an electronic submission or its contents cannot be fully displayed.
This article provides general information and is not legal advice on any individual matter.
