Procedure of disposal of worthless registry material
The Cultural Property Law prescribes the obligations of bodies, institutions, enterprises and other legal entities in the course of which activities the registry material and archival records are created.
Article 37
State authorities and organizations, authorities of units of territorial autonomy and local self-government, institutions, companies and other legal entities that produce registry material during their operations are obliged to:
1. label and date registry material and keep basic records on it,
2. store registry material in an organized and secure condition,
3. classify and archive registry material and select archival records, and
4. dispose worthless registry material within two years from the date of the expiration of the determined storing period.
The disposed worthless registry material can be destroyed only upon the written approval of the competent archival office.
Article 38
State authorities and organizations, authorities of units of territorial autonomy and local self-government, institutions, companies and other legal entities shall determine:
1. the manner of registry material recording, storing, classifying and archiving, unless it is otherwise stipulated by law for particular authorities and organizations
2. the lists of categories of registry material with the periods of storing, and
3. the manner of protection and usage of data and documents generated during automatic data processing.
The lists of categories of registry material with the periods of storing shall be determined in agreement with the competent archival office.
THE DISPOSAL of worthless registry material with the expired periods of storing is conducted every year. The selection of archival material and disposal of worthless registry material can be performed only from the previously catalogued and arranged archival and registry material.
The disposal is performed in accordance with the Archival Book and the List of Categories of Registry Material with Storing Periods.
During the disposal, it is necessary to adhere to the provisions of the General Act in Office Operations (it is usually the Rulebook on Business Operations), as well as to the Guidelines on Archiving in accordance with the ISO standard, if your registry has one.
The disposal is performed by a commission. The commission is established by the managing authority and consisted of no fewer than three members. The disposal commission creates a Record the attachment of which is the Catalogue of separated worthless registry material whose storing periods have expired. The Record is signed by all commission members.
The disposal record contains:
1. a section which refers to the legal acts that regulate the disposal:
Articles 37 and 76 of the Cultural Property Law (”The Official Gazette of RS”, No. 71/94)
Articles of the General Act on Business Operations
Articles of the Guidelines on Archiving in accordance with the ISO standards
the List of Categories of Registry Material with Storing Periods No. ___, date ___
(the number and date of the Archive’s agreement)
2. names of the Commission members
3. the amount of the disposed material expressed in running metres (m) and the period of the creation of that material
4. the data on the place where the material is located (organization unit, section, place, address, etc.)
5. the data on the work of which unit the material was created in (in the work of registry, its legal predecessors or the material that appeared in the registry in another manner)
6. the amount and the period of the creation of the material that remains in further storage in the registry upon the disposal.
The Catalogue of the worthless registry material the storage periods of which have expired and that are proposed for disposing is made in a table that contains the following columns:
1. ordinal number
2. ordinal number from the Archival Book
3. the year, i.e. the period of the creation of the material that is being disposed
4. the name of the category and the type of the material
5. the amount expressed in registry units (the number of registries, folders, books, etc.)
6. the storing period.
The Record created in this manner shall be submitted to the Archive. Upon the reception of the Record, the professional service of the Archive shall visit the registry, inspect the registry material proposed for the disposal and make a Record of Professional Supervision in the Disposal Process which is signed by the professional service of the Archive and the Commission members.
Upon that, the Archive issues a Decision on the Disposal on the basis of which the registry can destroy the disposed material. The Decision on the Disposal is signed by the Director of the Archive.
The registry shall PERMANENTLY store:
• The Record with the Catalogue of the registry material proposed for the disposal
• The Record of the Archive on the professional supervision in the disposal process
• The Decision of the Archive on the disposal.
STORING AND ARCHIVING OF ACCOUNTING DOCUMENTS, ACTS AND RECORDS
The obligations of the authorities, institutions, companies and other legal entities during the work of which the registry and archival material is created are regulated by the Cultural Property Law. Apart from this Law, as the main law regulating the obligations of the authorities, institutions, companies and other legal entities in relation to the registry material, obligations and the period of storing the archival material are closely regulated by special laws and bylaws, particularly by the:
1. Cultural Property Law
2. Law on Accounting and Auditing
3. Law on Value-Added Tax
4. Budget System Law
5. Law on Companies
6. Regulation on Budget Accounting
In the following text, the basic information is given on:
– obligation of keeping records and storing registry and archival material according to the Cultural Property Law
– periods for storing accounting documents in accordance with the Law on Accounting and Auditing
– periods for storing accounting documents in accordance with the Law on Value-Added Tax
– periods for storing acts and documents in accordance with the Law on Companies
– periods for storing accounting documents in accordance with the Regulation on Budget Accounting.
OBLIGATION OF KEEPING RECORDS AND STORING REGISTRY AND ARCHIVAL MATERIAL ACCORDING TO THE CULTURAL PROPERTY LAW
The Cultural Property Law in the Article 37 prescribes the obligation of the authorities, institutions, companies and other legal entities during the work of which the registry and archival material is created to:
1. label and date registry material and keep basic records on it
2. store registry material in an organized and secure condition
3. classify and archive registry material, and
4. select archival material and dispose worthless registry material within a year from expiry of the determined period of storing.
The disposed (separated) worthless registry material can be destroyed only upon the written approval of the competent archival office.
According to the Article 38 of the Law, state authorities and organizations, authorities of units of territorial autonomy and local self-government, institutions, companies and other legal entities determine:
1. the manner of registry material recording, storing, classifying and archiving, unless it is otherwise specified by law for particular authorities and organizations
2. the lists of categories of registry material with the periods of storing, and
3. the manner of protection and usage of data and documents generated during automatic data processing.
The Law stipulates that the manner of recording, storing, classifying and archiving of the archival material generated during the operation of companies and other legal entities shall be closely determined by the Rules or Rulebook on Office and Archive Operations.
The lists of categories of registry material with the periods of storing shall be determined in agreement with the competent archival office.
Also, according to the Article 39, the arranged and catalogued archival material shall be delivered for storing to a competent archival office after 30 years, counting from the date of creation of the material. After the expiry of the 30-year period, the competent archival office can decide that the material is to be submitted every five years, or it can be otherwise agreed with the holder of the material.
According to the Article 41 of the Law, the selected, arranged and catalogued archival material, as well as registry material, generated during the operations of authorities, institutions, companies and other legal entities that were abolished or ceased to work, shall be considered due for takeover, provided no one assumed their rights and obligations.
PERIODS FOR STORING ACCOUNTING DOCUMENTS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAW ON ACCOUNTING AND AUDITING
The Article 23 of the Law stipulates the obligation of legal entities and entrepreneurs to neatly store accounting documents, books of account and financial statements, and to define in their general act the responsible persons and business premises for their storing, as well as the storing procedure. The same Article of the Law stipulates the periods of storing particular accounting documents, namely:
payrolls or analytic records of payments if they present significant data on employees –shall be permanently stored
financial statements and statements on conducted audit service – shall be stored for 20 years
the journal and general ledger – shall be stored for 10 years
subsidiary ledgers – shall be stored for 5 years
documents used as a base for entering data into books of account – shall be stored for 5 years
documents of payment operations in the organizations authorised for payment operations – shall be stored for 5 years
sales and control books, subsidiary forms and similar documents – shall be stored for 2 years.
Periods for storing accounting documents and books of account shall be calculated starting from the last day of the financial year they relate to.
In case books of account are kept in the computer device, legal entity, i.e. entrepreneur shall provide the memorizing of the applicative software along with memorized data, in order to have such data available for control.
When initiating liquidation or bankruptcy procedure, accounting documents and books of account shall be handed over to the liquidation, i.e. bankruptcy receiver.
The audit companies shall store for 5 years the documents on the basis of which the audit was performed.
In case a legal entity or an entrepreneur does not store accounting documents, books of account and financial statements in the manner and for periods stipulated by the Law, a fine is prescribed:
– from 100,000 to 3,000,000 RSD for economic offense for a legal entity
– from 5,000 to 150,000 RSD for the responsible person of the legal entity,
and for an entrepreneur, the misdemeanour fine from 5,000 to 500,000 RSD.
PERIODS FOR STORING ACCOUNTING DOCUMENTS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAW ON VALUE-ADDED TAX
The Article 46 of the Law on Value-Added Tax stipulates:
A taxpayer shall, for the purpose of regular calculation and payment of the VAT, keep records ensuring the control, and the Article 47 stipulates:
A taxpayer shall keep the records, referred to in the Article 46 of this Law, at least ten years after the expiry of the calendar year that the records refer to.
In accordance with the Rulebook on Form, Content and Method of Keeping VAT Records, this means that the Overview of VAT Calculation is kept for 10 years with the overall documentation, as well as the tax return form.
The Article 60 of the Law stipulates that for the offence, in case of not keeping the records during the prescribed period (Article 47), the punishment shall be:
a taxpayer – legal entity – fine from 100,000 to 1,000,000 RSD
the responsible person of a legal entity – fine from 10,000 to 50,000 RSD
an entrepreneur – fine from 12,500 to 500,000 RSD
a natural person (taxpayer) – fine from 5,000 to 50,000 RSD
PERIODS FOR STORING ACTS AND DOCUMENTS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAW ON COMPANIES
The Law on Companies, in the provisions of the Article 174 for limited liability companies and the Article 342 for joint stock companies, stipulates the obligation of keeping and storing acts and documents in the company headquarters or in another place known and accessible to members, i.e. shareholders of the company.
According to these legal provisions, a company shall keep and store the following acts:
1. its Memorandum of Association including all amendments thereto
2. its company agreement (or Articles of Association) and all amendments thereto
3. the decision on registration
4. internal documents approved by the general meeting and other company bodies
5. its book of decisions
6. foundation documents of every branch of the company
7. documents proving the ownership and other rights of the company over its assets
8. minutes and decisions of general meetings, board of directors meetings, and supervisory board meetings of the company
9. minutes of any audit committee meetings and their written orders and decisions
10. financial reports, reports on business operations, and audit reports
11. the prospectus for issuing shares and other securities
12. accounting files and documents on financial and operations reports submitted to authorized bodies
13. a list of all related companies with information showing the share or other rights in those companies
14. the book of shares
15. a list of full names and addresses of all members of the board of directors and all persons authorized to represent the company and the auditor of the company, as well as information whether the authorized persons represent the company collectively or individually
16. the full name and address of the internal auditor and members of the audit committee
17. a list of all transfers of shares including pledges or any other transfer to a person whodoes not thus become a member of the company or a shareholder
18. a list of contracts between the company and directors or related persons in respect of this Law.
Furthermore, pursuant to the provisions of the Articles 174 and 342 of this Law, a company shall store its Articles of Association and company agreement permanently, whereas, it shall store the other abovementioned documents for at least five years, and after that period, shall store them in accordance with regulations on archival materials.
With respect to the periods of storing certain acts, considering the referring norm (after the period of 5 years to store the documents in accordance with regulations on archival materials) – during the determination of the List of categories with the periods of storing, these periods should be maximized with particular care of the periods of storing stipulated by other separate laws, mostly as longer periods (e.g. the Law on Accounting and Auditing). It is of particular significance to establish the permanent period of storing for the decisions on registration, papers and documents related to property, the book of decisions, and the book of shares.
The penalty provisions of this Law in the Article 450 specify that in case a company does not keep and store acts and documents in the manner stipulated in the Articles 174 and 342 of this Law, the following shall be fined for the economic offence:
– the company – with a fine of 10,000 to 3,000,000 RSD
– the responsible person of the company – with a fine of 2,000 to 200,000 RSD.
PERIODS FOR STORING ACCOUNTING DOCUMENTS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE REGULATION ON BUDGET ACCOUNTING
The Article 17 of the Regulation specifies that accounting documents and books of account shall be stored in business premises of the users of budget funds and organizations of compulsory social insurance, with the following periods of storing:
• records on payrolls – permanently
• financial statements – 50 years
• the journal, general ledger, subsidiary ledgers, and records – 10 years
• original and supporting documentation – 5 years.
The periods of storing are calculated from the last day of the budget year the accounting document refers to.
The Article 20 of the Regulation specifies that in case the books of account are not concluded in the determined period or in case financial statements, books of account, or accounting documents are not stored in the manner and for the determined periods, the following shall be fined:
– the responsible person in the financial service of the user of the budget funds – with a fine of 500 to 50,000 RSD
– the organization of the compulsory social insurance – with a fine of 10,000 to 1,000,000 RSD.