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Step by Step to Secure Document Destruction for Tax Advisors
Tax advisors rely on the trust of their clients. In the course of their work, they handle data that provides deep insights into their clients’ financial and personal situations. When such documents are no longer needed, they must be disposed of in a way that prevents unauthorized third parties from gaining access. But how can documents be destroyed in a tax office in compliance with data protection regulations?
Here’s how you can proceed step by step.
Step 1: As a tax advisor, take responsibility for document destruction yourself!
Step 2: Purchase document shredders with the correct security level for your tax office!
Step 3: Destroy documents that are no longer needed directly in the tax office!
Step 1: As a tax advisor, take responsibility for document destruction yourself!
Some tax offices have their files destroyed externally. They hand over the sensitive client files after the end of the statutory retention periods to a service provider who is supposed to take care of the disposal. From the tax advisor’s perspective, this seems like a convenient and cost-effective solution. However, it is often overlooked that in the event of a violation, the tax office remains liable under GDPR. This applies even if the service provider is clearly responsible.
The costs and effort involved in external disposal are also often underestimated compared to what they actually turn out to be. For example, under GDPR, the service provider must be regularly checked for compliance with the contract, and there are recurring costs for renting appropriate containers and for the document destruction itself.
Step 2: Purchase document shredders with the correct security level for your tax office!
For paper destruction, there are a total of 7 security levels according to DIN standard 66399 and ISO/IEC 21964: from P-1 to P-7. The higher the number, the finer the paper is shredded and the greater the effort required to reconstruct such documents.
Since tax data has a very high protection requirement (protection class 3), meaning its disclosure would be existentially threatening, document shredders for tax advisors should comply with at least security level P-5. Depending on requirements, it may also be advisable to purchase a shredder that can securely destroy other media, such as USB sticks or CDs.
Step 3: Destroy documents that are no longer needed directly in the tax office!
From a data protection perspective, client files that are no longer required should not remain unnecessarily in the tax office before being destroyed. The fewer people who have internal access to them, the better. In addition, there is a risk that discarded files lying around may be improperly disposed of due to misunderstandings.
For tax advisors, it is therefore advisable to purchase at least one document shredder per office. This way, documents containing sensitive information can be securely destroyed on the spot in compliance with data protection regulations. This reduces coordination efforts and also saves space in the tax office.
