---
title: "Archiving Emails in Compliance with GoBD: What Is Mandatory"
description: "Which emails you must retain, when the email itself becomes a record, and how to automatically secure attachments like invoices in a GoBD-compliant way."
type: "wissen"
product: "documents"
slug: "gobd-email-archivierung"
source_language: "de"
target_languages: ["de", "en", "es", "pl", "tr"]
published: "2026-06-10"
status: "publish"
faq_json: [{"q":"Do all emails have to be archived?","a":"No. Subject to retention are emails that serve as a business letter or accounting record – such as quotes, order confirmations, or invoices. Pure transport emails without their own content are usually not."}, {"q":"When is an email a business letter?","a":"When it prepares, concludes, carries out, or reverses a transaction – for example when it contains contract details, terms, or binding commitments."}, {"q":"Is it enough to secure the invoice attachment and delete the email?","a":"If the email only serves as a transport route and the attachment is archived completely and unchanged, this is predominantly considered sufficient. If the email itself contains business-relevant statements, it should also be retained."}, {"q":"How long must business emails be retained?","a":"Depending on the function of the email, the statutory periods for business letters or accounting records under the Commercial Code and the Fiscal Code apply."}, {"q":"Does a normal mailbox meet the requirements?","a":"Usually not: in ordinary mailboxes, emails can be deleted and edited. GoBD-oriented retention requires protection against alteration over the entire period."}]
language: "en"
source_id: "wissen/gobd-email-archivierung"
source_hash: "abaee0ad746457d957aab43c9472de96bc2e76a7d0136a3cb61cfdb8e42c3c8b"
---

Emails must be archived in compliance with GoBD if they are relevant for tax purposes – that is, if they serve as a business letter or accounting record, for example with quotes, order confirmations, or invoices as attachments. Not every email is affected: pure transport messages ("please find our invoice attached") without their own business content are generally not subject to retention – but their attachment is.

## Which emails you must retain

The function decides, not the medium. An email is typically subject to retention if it

- **prepares, concludes, carries out, or reverses** a transaction (commercial/business letter),
- itself serves as an **accounting record** or documents terms, prices, and commitments,
- transports an attachment subject to retention – in which case at least the **attachment** must be secured.

Newsletters, internal scheduling arrangements, or spam do not fall under this. Mixed cases are trickier: if the email accompanying an invoice attachment also states "as discussed, we grant a 5% discount," the email itself is business-relevant and belongs in the archive.

## Why the mailbox is not an archive

A normal mailbox barely meets the GoBD requirements on its own: emails can be deleted, moved, mailboxes fill up, or are dissolved when employees change. The GoBD, by contrast, require immutability, completeness, and orderly findability over years. So you need a process that transfers relevant content from the mailbox into a protected storage.

## The practical approach: secure attachments automatically

For most small businesses, the most important lever is the flow of records by email – above all incoming invoices. You can fully automate this part: [webRichtung documents](https://www.webrichtung.de/module/documents/) connects via IMAP to your company's mailboxes and automatically imports incoming attachments. The following applies:

- The **attachments** are imported, the **email context** (sender, subject, receipt date) is retained as search and audit context.
- A **start date** controls the historical import – so you can also clean up retroactively.
- Imported documents go through normal processing: reading, classifying, making searchable – and then end up in the GoBD archive with Object Lock for 6, 8, or 10 years.

What the setup looks like in detail is described in the article [Importing documents by email](/en/wissen/dokumente-per-email-importieren.html); the technical documentation can be found at [docs.webrichtung.de/documents](https://docs.webrichtung.de/documents/).

## A simple rule for the team

To ensure that as little as possible falls through the cracks in everyday work, a clear convention helps: business-relevant correspondence runs through defined company mailboxes (e.g. rechnung@, info@), not through private addresses – because only connected mailboxes are secured automatically. Whatever comes in as an attachment lands in storage by itself; emails with their own contractual content you additionally file deliberately.

## Quick check for your company

- Do invoices and order confirmations come in through defined company mailboxes?
- Are attachments automatically transferred into a protected storage – or does this depend on a single person?
- Can the archived records be found by content, date, and amount?
- Is it regulated what happens to old emails when mailboxes are dissolved and staff changes?

If you answer a question with no, that is the point you should start with – usually an afternoon of setup is enough instead of a project.

This article provides general information and does not replace legal or tax advice.