Archive Outlook Email GoBD Compliant
Searching for how to archive Outlook email usually leads to Outlook's own archive function. It tidies the mailbox, but it is not an archive in the sense of GoBD, the German tax authority's rules for electronic books and records. Under § 257 HGB (German Commercial Code) and § 147 AO (German Fiscal Code), business letters (Handelsbriefe) must be kept for 6 years and accounting vouchers such as invoices for 8 years. They must be complete, unalterable and findable.
Legal basis
- § 257 HGB and § 147 AO: 6 years for business letters, 8 years for accounting vouchers including invoices, 10 years for books, annual financial statements and organisational documents.
- 8 years for vouchers applies since 1 January 2025 (Fourth Bureaucracy Relief Act, BEG IV). It covers all documents whose old 10-year period had not ended by 31 December 2024 (Art. 97 § 19a EGAO). Banks, insurers and investment firms follow one year later.
- The period starts at the end of the calendar year.
- BFH order XI R 15/23 (30 April 2025): emails can be business letters.
- § 146 (2a) AO allows keeping electronic records in another EU member state.
Why Outlook alone is not enough
| Outlook feature | Problem |
|---|---|
| AutoArchive to PST | The PST file sits on a computer or network drive and can be edited, copied and deleted |
| Archive folder | An ordinary folder in the mailbox, users can delete everything |
| Online archive (Microsoft 365) | A second mailbox, equally deletable |
| Regular exports | Gaps between exports, no immutability |
Outlook is only the client. The emails live on the mail server or locally. A GoBD-compliant archive therefore has to start at the mail server, not at the client.
How to archive Outlook email with EasyMailArchive
- Create an account. Sign up and try it for 30 days, no credit card.
- Connect your mail server. Depending on where your email lives:
- Microsoft 365 or Exchange 2013 and later: a transport or journal rule sends a BCC copy to your relay address
[email protected]. See Microsoft 365, Exchange Server and the setup guide. - Any other mailbox, such as one at a hosting provider: IMAP import of all folders including Sent. See archive an IMAP mailbox and IMAP integrations.
- Microsoft 365 or Exchange 2013 and later: a transport or journal rule sends a BCC copy to your relay address
- Bring in your PST backlog. Open the PST file in Outlook and drag the folders into the server mailbox. EasyMailArchive imports them over IMAP or through the Microsoft 365 connection and removes duplicates.
- Set retention. For example 10 years for all mailboxes. Retention runs in whole years to 31 December of the year, and imported older mail counts from its own date. There is no delete function for single emails, mail is only deleted automatically when retention ends.
- Delete the PST files only once everything is in the archive. Check a sample through search.
Every email is encrypted with AES-256 using a separate key per customer, sent over TLS and stored in a database of its own in the WITT AG data centre in Germany. For the auditor you export original EML or PDF with SHA-256 checksums, digitally signed on Business and up. Every action is logged and the log exports as CSV.
What users notice
Nothing. Outlook stays unchanged. Anyone looking for an old email finds it in EasyMailArchive by full text search in the message body, or by sender, recipient, subject and date, even if it was deleted from the mailbox long ago. Searches can be saved.
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This article summarises the law in general terms and is not legal or tax advice.