Keeping receipts as a private person: what, how long and where
Which receipts to keep as a private person: there is no legal duty in Switzerland, but warranty, tax and insurance make 2 to 10 years sensible. The overview.
In short: As a private person in Switzerland you are not legally required to keep receipts; the 10-year retention rule in Art. 958f of the Swiss Code of Obligations (OR) applies to businesses. It is still worth doing: keep warranty receipts for 2 years, tax receipts until your assessment is final (10 years to be safe), and receipts for valuables and property for as long as you own them.
"How long do I have to keep receipts?" has a different answer for private individuals than for companies. No authority will fine you for throwing away the till slip from your weekly shop. But there are a handful of situations where a missing receipt costs real money: a rejected warranty claim, a tax deduction that gets struck out, an insurance claim without proof of value.
This article shows you which receipts to keep as a private person, how long, and where to store them so you can still find them two years from now.
Do private individuals have to keep receipts at all?
No. There is no general legal retention duty for private individuals in Switzerland. Art. 958f OR obliges businesses to keep their accounting records and supporting documents for ten years. If you are an employee simply paying for everyday life, that rule does not apply to you. How it works for the self-employed is covered in retention rules in Switzerland.
What private individuals do have is a burden of proof. If you want something from someone, you have to show evidence: the warranty from the retailer, the deduction from the tax office, the payout from your insurer. Without a receipt, you are in a weak position. Keeping receipts is not an obligation, it is insurance.
Which receipts you should keep as a private person
The rule of thumb: keep every receipt that could later get you money back or let you enforce a claim. Everything else can go. In practice that means five groups:
- Warranty and returns: electronics, household appliances, furniture, bikes, tools, and clothing above a certain price.
- Tax deductions: training and education, medical costs, donations, work-related expenses, childcare, pillar 3a certificates.
- Insurance: purchase receipts for valuables (laptop, camera, jewellery, bike) so you can prove their value after theft or damage.
- Housing: rental contract, service charge statements, deposit confirmations, and for homeowners every invoice for renovations.
- Contracts and subscriptions: cancellation confirmations, bills from telecom, electricity and health insurance, until everything is paid and closed.
The till slip for bread and milk belongs to none of these groups. Which other receipts you can bin immediately is covered in how long to keep receipts.
How long should I keep receipts as a private person?
The answer depends on what the receipt is for, not on what kind of receipt it is. One and the same receipt for a CHF 1,800 laptop is a warranty receipt (2 years), a tax receipt (if you use the laptop for work) and proof of value for your household insurance (as long as you own it). The longest period always wins.
| Purpose | Recommended period | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Warranty and returns | 2 years from purchase | Statutory warranty under Art. 210 OR |
| Tax return | until the assessment is final, 10 years to be safe | Back-tax proceedings are possible up to 10 years after the tax period (Art. 152 DBG) |
| Household contents and valuables | as long as you own the item | Proof of value in a claim |
| Home ownership and renovations | until you sell, plus the tax period | Value-adding investments reduce property gains tax |
Two points are often underestimated. First, a tax assessment can take months or longer, and the tax office may still request documents afterwards. If you throw away receipts right after filing, you risk losing the deduction. Second, for homeowners it pays to keep invoices for decades. The CHF 35,000 invoice for a new kitchen is worth real money when you sell in 20 years, because it reduces the taxable gain.
Why paper receipts alone are not enough
The biggest problem with keeping receipts is not space, it is the paper itself. Till receipts are printed on thermal paper, and thermal paper fades. After one or two years in a drawer, a wallet or near a radiator, all that is left is often a pale strip. Exactly when the warranty claim comes up, the receipt is unreadable. Why this happens and how fast is explained in scan paper receipts before they fade.
The fix is simple: photograph the receipt on the day of purchase. With an app like Belego you take a photo, the app crops, straightens and saves the scan as a PDF. Amount, date and merchant are read automatically, so you can find the receipt by search later. The paper receipt can still go into a box, but you no longer depend on it staying legible.
For warranty claims, most retailers accept a digital receipt as long as the date, retailer, product and amount are clearly visible. More on that in receipts for warranty and returns.
Where is the best place to store receipts?
In one single place you can find without thinking. Several places (kitchen drawer, wallet, email inbox, folder in the office) are the main reason receipts go missing. A simple system that has proven itself:
- Digital by default: every relevant receipt is scanned or saved as a PDF on the day of purchase. This is where you search.
- One paper box per year: originals you want to keep physically (warranty cards, contracts, invoices for your property) go into one box or folder per year. No subdivision needed, because you search digitally.
- One annual folder for the tax return: donation confirmations, health insurance statements, course invoices, pillar 3a certificate. What belongs in it is listed in the receipt checklist for the Swiss tax return.
Important for digital filing: make a backup. If your phone is lost, the receipts should not vanish with it. Belego exports all receipts for a chosen period as a ZIP with PDFs and a CSV list; save that file once a year on your computer or an external drive. How to structure it is described in filing receipts digitally.
A realistic example from everyday life
Take one year in the life of an employee in Zurich. She buys a bike for CHF 1,200 and a laptop for CHF 1,600, takes a language course for CHF 900, donates CHF 300 and has dental bills of CHF 2,400. On top of that come around 250 till receipts for groceries, coffee and small purchases.
What she needs to keep: the four big purchase receipts (warranty and household insurance), the course invoice and the donation confirmation (tax), the dental invoices and the health insurance statement (medical costs). That is about ten documents. The 250 till receipts can go once paid, unless she wants to return individual items of clothing. Scanning and filing ten documents a year takes less than half an hour. That is the entire effort.
Frequently asked questions
How long should I keep till receipts as a private person?
For everyday purchases, not at all once you have paid and do not want to return anything. For products with a warranty, keep the receipt for two years, which is the length of the statutory warranty in Switzerland. For expensive items like laptops or bikes, keep the receipt as proof of value for household insurance too, meaning for as long as you own the item.
Do I have to submit receipts with my tax return or just keep them?
In most cantons you only attach certain documents, such as your salary certificate, pillar 3a certificate and donation confirmations. All other receipts for deductions are kept and submitted only on request. The tax office can ask for documents until the assessment is final and later in back-tax proceedings. Your canton's tax guide (Wegleitung) lists exactly what is required.
Is a photo of the receipt enough for a warranty claim?
Usually yes. The retailer needs to see when, where and what was bought and at what price. A clearly readable scan does that. Some retailers insist on the original, so for expensive devices it is worth keeping the paper as well. The main thing the scan protects you from is the thermal receipt fading before the warranty expires.
What should I do with receipts that arrive by email?
Save them as PDFs instead of leaving them in your inbox. Email accounts get changed, cleaned out or deleted, and after three years nobody can find the order confirmation from back then. File the PDFs in the same place as your scanned paper receipts, so there is only one place to search. Online orders, subscription bills and tickets belong there too.