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Three Generations of Service |
I have copies of every return back to 1984 which I'm pretty sure is excessive Online advice is variable from 3 to 7 years. My returns are dead simple, standard deduction, a little self-employment income with supporting worksheets for expenses and mileage. No interest income to speak of, no dividends or IRA distributions (yet...) I'm thinking 5 years as a reasonable happy medium. What say you? Be careful when following the masses. Sometimes the M is silent. | ||
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thin skin can't win |
Assuming you're not being audited for fraud, the window for audit is 3 years from the time of filing, so 4-5 years should be fine. Personally, mine are all scanned so no real advantage to peeling off the old ones to make my PC lighter. As I recall you were gathering up paper forms recently so I suspect yours are in a more papyrus-based condition. You only have integrity once. - imprezaguy02 | |||
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Three Generations of Service |
Correct. I'm a bit of a Luddite when it comes to trusting electronic storage. Be careful when following the masses. Sometimes the M is silent. | |||
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Drill Here, Drill Now |
Here is what the IRS has to say about the topic:
Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer. | |||
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Member |
Tator Todd pretty much nailed it. If you have amended a submittal, claimed bankruptcy, been audited, etc, plan on keeping them indefinitely, or until you have gone a minimum of 7 years past said event. If this does not apply, keep them for 5-6 years. They take up less room than a year's worth of cable bills, so it is easy to maintain. | |||
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Member |
I have mine from 1975 to present. I guess I could clean our a drawer on my filing cabinet. Sometimes I like to go back and see what it was like to earn $1,000 a month and feel like I was on top of the world. I'm sorry if I hurt you feelings when I called you stupid - I thought you already knew - Unknown ................................... When you have no future, you live in the past. " Sycamore Row" by John Grisham | |||
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Three Generations of Service |
I just pulled everything out of the filing cabinet. I fibbed, I have records back to 1978. I'll shred everything older than 2012, when I retired. Just for grins, I put together a spreadsheet to chart my AGI from 1978 to 2011. My AGI in 1978 was $8400. I was an E5 that year up to November when I made E6 in the Navy. I didn't hit the $1K/mo threshold until 1981 when I made Chief. Be careful when following the masses. Sometimes the M is silent. | |||
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Invest Early, Invest Often |
A related question...... I scan all my supporting documents and my Tax guy provides me with a PDF file of the return. So I have 20 plus years of returns and documentation. Is there any certain length of time I should keep the original paper copies ? | |||
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Age Quod Agis |
I usually recommend 7 years. "I vowed to myself to fight against evil more completely and more wholeheartedly than I ever did before. . . . That’s the only way to pay back part of that vast debt, to live up to and try to fulfill that tremendous obligation." Alfred Hornik, Sunday, December 2, 1945 to his family, on his continuing duty to others for surviving WW II. | |||
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Avoiding slam fires |
I got nailed in early sixties,paid the bastards with money order. Had to pay it again,that was when I first got of the service and book keeping and checking were foren to me. Lesson was learned,keep all my stuff for decades | |||
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Member |
The other thing to keep in mind is tax basis in assets. For example, let's assume you bought some stock in 1980 and have been dividend reinvesting all along the way. When you bought it, it was held through "Broker A" and you are now up to "Broker D". Until recently, brokerages were not required to transfer the cost basis information when the account transferred from one to another. So, unless YOU or your new broker were diligent and brought the cost basis information to the succeeding broker and made them update the records, your cost basis may have disappeared along the way. Then when you sell it, it is an absolute nightmare and expensive to reconstruct the cost basis or you elect to pay tax on a higher gain number to forgo the headache. So, if you dividend reinvest, you should keep good records of all transaction activity for as long as you own the shares. Once sold, you can dispose of them a minimum of three years out from the sale. Place your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark. “If in winning a race, you lose the respect of your fellow competitors, then you have won nothing” - Paul Elvstrom "The Great Dane" 1928 - 2016 | |||
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Member |
Related to the thread for the new found brother and other long lost family. If it wasn’t for my pack rat grandma keeping her tax returns since the 1940’s and my dad snooping through them within the last decade while cleaning out her house to make it ready to rent after she got senile he never would have discovered his dad was paying child support in those years for the brother he didn’t meet till he was 75. So unless you have something to be found out long after your gone I say keep 7 years. | |||
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Member |
I don't keep these either! | |||
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His Royal Hiney |
Before you shred your tax returns, consider this. I had physical Tax Records since 1987. Last year I scanned them into PDF files. I kept the last 7 years and shred the rest. Since 2016, I've scanned the supporting documentations like charitable receipts, W2s, property taxes, etc. 2018 is the first year I'm not keeping any hard copies. All PDF files. I store them in an encrypted volume on my hard drive, backed up to 3 separate USB drives - one weekly, the other 2 alternating bi-monthly, and a back up to two separate encrypted cloud servers. "It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual." Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, 1946. | |||
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