Denmark sets 1 July 2024 and 1 January 2025 as the start of mandatory digital bookkeeping for annual-report companies (BEK nr. 1342/2023)

What changed in detail

Executive order BEK nr. 1342 of 24 November 2023, issued by Erhvervsministeriet under section 34(2) of the Bookkeeping Act (lov nr. 700 of 24 May 2022), was published in Lovtidende A on 29 November 2023. The order itself entered into force on 1 January 2024 (§ 2).

Section 1 brings into force the duty to keep books in a digital bookkeeping system (sections 16(1) and (2) of the Act) and the related provision in section 36, for businesses that must file an annual report under section 3(1) of the Financial Statements Act. The duty applies from the first financial year starting on or after:

• 1 July 2024, if the business uses a registered standard bookkeeping system;
• 1 January 2025, if the business uses a non-registered system (for example, one developed for the business itself).

Section 1(2) also brings into force sections 16(3), 17, 24 and 27(1) of the Act. Section 1(3) excludes subsidiaries of financial, insurance and ATP businesses that use a group-wide bookkeeping system.

What it means

Both phase-in dates have passed, so the duty is now live for every annual-report company: a company with a calendar financial year has been in scope since 1 January 2025 at the latest.

The order covered only part of the population. BEK nr. 297 of 20 March 2025 extended the same duty, for the first financial year beginning on or after 1 January 2026, to businesses that do not file annual reports but have net turnover above DKK 300,000 in two consecutive income years, and to the subsidiaries this order excluded. What a non-registered system must do is set by BEK nr. 205/2024. Registered-system users face later e-invoicing changes, including default NemHandel registration from 1 March 2027.