How long must personnel documents and payrolls be kept?
Quick answer
- Payrolls and documents with salary data are kept for 50 years.
- The long term is justified by the need to prove length of service and income for pensions.
- Other personnel documents have their own, shorter retention periods, as set by law.
- The employer is obliged to archive the documents and present them on request.
- Archiving can be on physical or electronic media, observing the legal deadlines.
What the law says
- Payrolls and documents with salary data are kept for 50 years, under archiving legislation.
- Law 16/1996 on the National Archives sets retention periods by document category.
- The Labour Code (Law 53/2003) requires the employer to keep records and present them at a check.
- Documents that do not concern salary data have their own, shorter retention periods.
- Destroying documents before the legal deadline expires is prohibited.
Practical examples
- Example: payrolls from 2026 must be kept until 2076, to prove income for the pension.
- Example: a former employee can request an income certificate based on payrolls archived for 50 years.
- Example: internal administrative documents, without salary data, may have shorter retention periods.
- Example: on company liquidation, payrolls are handed to the National Archives for the 50-year retention.
Common mistakes
- Destroying payrolls before the 50-year retention period is reached.
- Applying the same short term to all documents, without separating payrolls.
- Lacking a backup copy of the archive, risking the loss of salary data.
- Failing to hand over payrolls on company liquidation.
How 4softhr helps
- 4softhr digitally archives payrolls and salary documents for the full period required by law.
- It keeps a complete personnel file per employee, with retention periods tracked.
- It allows fast retrieval of a payroll or an income certificate from the archive.
- It reduces the risk of data loss through a centralised, secure record.
- It quickly generates income certificates based on the archived payrolls.