In Tunisia, maintaining regular accounting does not end with the filing of the tax package nor with the approval of the financial statements at the general meeting. It extends, silent and binding, into the obligation to preserve the supporting documents, the accounting books, and the documents that underpin each entry.
This requirement, often relegated to the rank of a mere archival discipline, is in fact a pillar of the legal security of the enterprise, enforceable against both the tax administration and the commercial jurisdictions and against third parties in the event of a sale or a dispute.
The foundational text in this regard is Law No. 96-112 of December 30, 1996, relating to the accounting system of enterprises, which came into effect on January 1, 1997. According to its final provisions, the financial statements relating to a fiscal year, as well as the books, the trial balances and the supporting documents attached to them, must be kept for at least ten years from the closing of the concerned financial year.
This ten-year period, designed as a floor rather than a ceiling, applies to every company subject to the accounting system, regardless of its size, its activity sector or its tax regime.
A legal floor
The general journal and the inventory book must be endorsed and initialed by the judge of the court of first instance at the registered office of the company, kept chronologically, with no blanks or alterations. This formal requirement is not cosmetic, because it conditions the probative value of the documents before the tax administration as well as before the commercial judge.
The General Accounting Standard NC 01, approved by the National Accounting Council, specifies that every accounting entry must meet criteria of validity, completeness and accuracy, supported by a supporting document prepared on a medium ensuring its reliability and its legibility throughout the entire required duration.
Thus, preservation is not a mere administrative formality after the accounting entry; it is the condition of its ongoing validity.
The supporting document
