Electronic vs digitized documents: which one is legally valid

Under Article 46 of Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 (eIDAS), a document created electronically may not be refused as evidence in any EU country only because it is electronic. A scan of a paper document is a copy, and national law decides whether it replaces the original and whether the paper may be destroyed.

Two different things: born digital and digitised

An electronic document is created in electronic form from the start: an e-invoice sent as structured data, a contract signed electronically, an email, a PDF exported from accounting software. eIDAS defines it broadly as any content stored in electronic form (Article 3, point 35). Its value as evidence comes from the file itself and, where one is used, from its electronic signature or seal.

A digitised document is a paper document turned into an image with a scanner or a phone camera. It is a copy of the paper. What the copy is worth depends on how it was made and kept, and on the rules of the country whose tax office or court looks at it.

What EU law says

eIDAS sets three rules that apply in every member state:

• Electronic documents (Article 46): they shall not be denied legal effect and admissibility as evidence in legal proceedings solely on the grounds that they are in electronic form.
• Electronic signatures (Article 25): an electronic signature may not be refused as evidence only because it is electronic or not qualified, and a qualified electronic signature has the equivalent legal effect of a handwritten signature.
• Electronic seals (Article 35): a qualified electronic seal carries a presumption that the data are intact and come from the stated origin.

None of these articles says when a scan of paper may replace the original. That question is answered by national law, usually in tax and accounting rules, and the answers differ.

Arhivix is where scans and born digital files are collected, read and kept: paper comes in through the phone camera, which finds and straightens the page, or through a scanner, and Arhivix reads it with OCR and proposes the document type, supplier, amount and dates for a person to confirm. Every file keeps its version history and a log of every opening and download, hosted on AWS in the EU (Frankfurt and Dublin). Whether a scan may replace the paper original, and so whether the paper may be destroyed, is decided under the rules below by your company and its tax adviser; for the scanning itself, see how Arhivix reads scanned documents with OCR.

How national law treats scans

The six countries below show how far the rules differ. The list is not exhaustive, and each rule has exceptions in other laws of the same country.

Germany

Section 147(2) of the Abgabenordnung allows most tax records to be kept as an image, provided received business letters and accounting vouchers match the original pictorially; among the exceptions are annual financial statements and the opening balance sheet. The GoBD (BMF letter of 28 November 2019, amended on 11 March 2024 and by the BMF letter of 14 July 2025) require the scanning procedure to be documented (Rz. 136), do not require an electronic signature or timestamp for tax purposes (Rz. 138), and allow the paper to be destroyed after the scan unless a tax or non-tax rule requires the original (Rz. 140). Documents received electronically, such as XML e-invoices, are kept in the format in which they were received (Rz. 131).

France

Article 1379 of the Code civil gives a reliable copy the same evidential force as the original; reliability is for the judge to assess, and the original can still be demanded while it exists. Décret 2016-1673 of 5 December 2016 sets the conditions under which an electronic copy is presumed reliable, including an integrity fingerprint, presumed sufficient when a qualified timestamp, seal or signature is used (article 3). For tax, article L102 B of the Livre des procédures fiscales lets paper invoices be kept in electronic form, under scanning conditions fixed by order of the budget minister.

Spain

Article 7 of Orden EHA/962/2007 allows certified digitisation of invoices and other original paper documents, after which the taxpayer may dispense with the paper originals. The scan must be made with digitisation software approved (homologado) by the Agencia Tributaria and signed electronically, by the company itself or by a digitisation service provider on its behalf.

Italy

Article 22 of the Codice dell'amministrazione digitale (D.Lgs. 82/2005) gives an image copy of a paper document the same evidential force as the original when a notary or other authorised public official certifies its conformity, or when it is made under the technical guidelines and its conformity is not expressly disputed. Such copies replace the paper originals for all legal purposes and satisfy retention duties, except for types of unique originals that a decree of the Prime Minister may list.

Croatia

The ordinance on converting accounting documents (Narodne novine 70/2026), in force since 9 July 2026, replaced the 2019 ordinance (NN 76/19). A company may convert paper accounting documents if their origin, integrity and legibility are ensured until the end of the retention period; it sets the method in internal rules and its system records who converted which document and when, who checked the conversion and with which software (article 4). A converted document counts as the original towards third parties, except where another rule requires the original, and the company bears the burden of proving the match (article 5).

Serbia

Under the law on electronic documents, electronic identification and trust services (Službeni glasnik RS 94/2017 and 52/2021, consolidated text published by Paragraf), a document digitised from paper is a copy (article 10). It has the evidential force of the original only if the digitisation was done by or under the supervision of the issuer or an authorised person and the match was confirmed with a qualified electronic seal or signature (article 11). Under article 6 of the law on archival material and archival activity (Službeni glasnik RS 6/2020), a paper original that is not kept permanently may be destroyed before its retention period ends only if it is kept within a qualified electronic preservation service, and permanently kept archival material may never be destroyed.

At a glance: may the paper be destroyed?

Country	Rule	May the paper be destroyed after scanning?
Germany	Section 147(2) AO; GoBD, Rz. 130 to 141	Yes, after a documented scan, unless another rule requires the original
France	Code civil art. 1379; Décret 2016-1673	Not stated in art. 1379; a copy made under the decree is presumed reliable, but the original may be demanded while it exists
Spain	Orden EHA/962/2007, art. 7	Yes, for documents digitised with software approved by the Agencia Tributaria
Italy	D.Lgs. 82/2005, art. 22	Yes, for copies made under art. 22, except unique originals listed by decree
Croatia	Ordinance in NN 70/2026	Yes, for accounting documents converted under the ordinance, unless another rule requires the original
Serbia	Law on archival material, art. 6	Only if kept within a qualified electronic preservation service; never for permanently kept archival material

What this means in practice

• Keep born digital documents in their original format. Printing an e-invoice or a signed PDF and scanning it back produces a copy, while the original remains the electronic file; in Germany, documents received electronically are kept in the format received (GoBD, Rz. 131).
• Document how you scan. Germany and Croatia require a written procedure, and a record of who scanned which document, when and how is useful evidence anywhere if a copy is questioned.
• A signature on a scan does not make it an original. It proves who signed and that the file was not changed; in some countries it is one condition of a certified copy, never the only one.
• Check before you shred. Germany, Italy and Croatia keep exceptions for documents another rule requires in original form, and Germany excludes annual financial statements and the opening balance sheet from image storage. Your accountant, tax adviser or competent archive can confirm what applies to your company.