Your association is obliged to keep its documents carefully, according to the length of time they have been kept, depending on their importance and their legal or accounting nature. This is an essential practice to ensure good governance and historical follow-up of your organization. Here's an overview of the rules governing the management of associative archives.
Document retention periods
Just as a person has identity documents, associations must also have documents essential to their legal recognition. This includes articles of association, minutes and other written documents which, as soon as they are created, must be filed with the Journal officiel des associations et fondations d'entreprise, and kept until your association is dissolved.
It is important to keep not only the articles of association and the various versions of the by-laws, but also all legal administrative documents accessible to the public, such as prefecture receipts and official publications.
Since a legislative reform of June 2008 on civil prescription, retention periods have been reduced: from 30 years to 5 years for personal and movable property matters, and from 10 years to 5 years for commercial matters. However, longer retention periods are recommended for optimum legal protection.
The following documents must be kept for life:
- your association's articles of association,
- internal regulations,
- the special register,
- Prefecture declaration receipts,
- notices of publication in the Official Journal.
Minutes of general meetings and board meetings, auditors' reports and documents relating to grants must be kept for 30 years.
Your insurance and commercial contracts have specific retention periods, often linked to their duration and the risks covered.
To find out more about these obligations, we recommend consulting dedicated resources, such as those on the register of deliberations, association governance and structural modifications.
Managing accounting and tax documents
The length of time accounting and tax records must be kept depends on the regulations in force. Tax legislation imposes a minimum retention period of 6 years, while the French Commercial Code requires that accounting documents be kept for 10 years. As a precautionary measure, it is therefore advisable to use the longer period.
Key accounting documents, such as journals, ledgers, inventories, balance sheets and management reports, must be archived for ten years. This also includes all supporting documents such as invoices, pay slips and bank statements.
The retention period for the volunteer operations journal is six years.