The records that matter in a cross-border life are the ones that show where you were, what you owned, and what you paid for it. They are boring on the day you create them and expensive on the day a tax officer, a buyer or an heir asks. Make the file while the logins still work.
Where you were
A day record, tickets that match it, and a note of homes you could use. Employment contracts or assignment letters that show where work was done. Residence permits and the dates they ran. These documents answer a different question from a bank statement, and they belong in the same archive.
What you owned and what it cost
Investment statements and contract notes, especially around the dates residence might have changed. Pension statements. Property completion statements, improvement invoices, and rental accounts. Life policy schedules and beneficiary forms. If a country later asks for value on arrival or on departure, a statement from that month is the evidence. A reconstructed spreadsheet is a guess.
How long to keep them
Local law may set a period for tax records. This site does not state one, because it differs and it changes. Cross-border questions sometimes arrive after a domestic period would have let you discard a file, because another country is asking, or because you are selling an asset bought long before. When in doubt, keep the departure-year file longer than the tidy part of you would like, in a form you can still open.
Keep the records that explain a year you will not remember clearly
The year you move is the year you will later be asked about, often when you no longer have the lease, the portal login or the colleague who knew the dates. Keep a day count, a list of addresses, employment and director contracts, and the dates you became or stopped being resident if an adviser has confirmed them. Keep bank and investment statements, including the cost of investments. Keep pension statements and insurance schedules. Keep the completion statement if a property was bought or sold.
Tax records are not only returns. They include the workings, the foreign tax paid, and the certificates you showed to a bank for a treaty rate. How long a country expects you to keep them is a local rule. This guide states no retention period. Ask the adviser, and if two countries are involved keep the longer of the periods they mention. Store copies you can open from either country, and keep a note of where the originals are.
Make the file understandable to someone who is not you
A spouse, an executor or an adviser may be the person who has to read this. Label documents with what they are, not with a camera filename. A short index — accounts, property, tax, pensions, insurance — is enough. Note passwords in whatever secure way your household already trusts, and say who the advisers are.
Download before you lose access. Platforms and banks close or restrict logins after a change of residence more often than people expect. A statement you can see today and cannot see in November is a poor archive. If a document is in another language, keep the translation you actually used with the original, so a later reader knows which text a bank or a tax office relied on.
Before you act
Once a year, or when something large changes, check that you can still open the file and that the index matches what is in it. Delete duplicates that confuse the story, and do not delete the originals of tax, property and identity documents because a scan exists, unless you are sure the scan is what an authority will accept. If you share the archive with a partner, agree what they may see and what an adviser may see. A move is a poor moment to discover that every login sits in one person’s password manager and that person is on a flight. The standard is modest: someone else could find the will, the property file and the last tax return without ringing you.
A practical checklist
- Day record and a sample of tickets.
- Tax returns you have already filed.
- Investment and pension statements around the move.
- Property purchase and improvement costs.
- Insurance schedules and nominations.
- A second copy somewhere that is not the laptop in your suitcase.
Questions to ask
- Which year might later be examined?
- Does either country ask for value on entry or exit?
- What proof of cost will a future sale need?
- How long must I keep returns here?
- Who else should be able to find this file?
Common mistakes
- Emptying a filing cabinet the week you move.
- Keeping paper you cannot read and no scan.
- A day record with no link to reality.
- Losing contract notes because the platform changed.
- Assuming one country’s retention rule binds the other country.
WiT Access provides general information and comparison resources. Nothing on this website constitutes financial, tax, legal or investment advice. Always consider obtaining advice from an appropriately qualified professional.
