As you go about your spring cleaning every year, maybe you come across a shoebox filled with old receipts. As you sift through them, you realize some of those receipts are almost a decade old. It’s time for them to go but then you second-guess yourself. You may be thinking, “Should I finally throw these away? Do I need to keep these other ones?” It’s responsible of you to keep track of your finances, especially of those purchases you wrote off on your taxes. But how long should you keep certain records in case the IRS needs them? The answer is according to the record retention schedule.
2019 Record Retention Schedule
Some records you only need to keep for 12 months, while others you need to file away forever. It all depends on the content and how it relates to you or your business’s finances. Lucky for you, at C&D, we’re here to help and know what to look for.
Here is how long you have to keep your receipts.
- Accident reports and claims (settled cases): 7 Years
- Accounts payable ledgers and schedules: 7 Years
- Accounts receivable ledgers and schedules: 7 Years
- Audit reports of accountants: Permanently
- Bank reconciliations: 1 Year
- Capital stock and bond records, ledgers, transfer registers, stubs showing issues, a record of interest coupons, options, etc.: Permanently
- Cash books: Permanently
- Charts of accounts: Permanently
- Checks (canceled but see exception below): 7 Years
- Checks (canceled for important payments, i.e., taxes, purchases of property, special contracts, etc. (checks should be filed with papers pertaining to the underlying transaction): Permanently
- Contracts and leases (expired): 7 Years
- Contracts and leases still in effect: Permanently
- Correspondence (routine) with customers or vendors: 1 Year
- Correspondence (general): 3 Years
- Correspondence (legal and important matters only): Permanently
- Deeds, mortgages, and bills of sale: Permanently
- Depreciation schedules: Permanently
- Duplicate deposit slips: 1 Year
- Employee personnel records (after termination): 3 Years
- Employment applications: 3 Years
- Expense analyses and expense distribution schedules: 7 Years
- Financial statements (end-of-year, other months optional): Permanently
- General and private ledgers (and end-of-year trial balances): Permanently
- Insurance policies (expired): 3 Years
- Insurance records, current accident reports, claims, policies, etc.: Permanently
- Internal audit reports (in some situations longer retention periods may be desirable): 3 Years
- Internal reports (miscellaneous): 3 Years
- Inventories of products materials and supplies: 7 Years
- Invoices to customers: 7 Years
- Invoices from vendors: 7 Years
- Journals: Permanently
- Minute books of directors and stockholders, including by-laws and charter: Permanently
- Notes receivable ledgers and schedules: 7 Years
- Option records (expired): 7 Years
- Payroll records and summaries, including payments to pensioners: 7 Years
- Petty cash vouchers: 3 Years
- Physical inventory tags: 3 Years
- Plant cost ledgers: 7 Years
- Property appraisals by outside appraisers: Permanently
- Property records, including costs, depreciation reserves, end-of-year trial balances, depreciation schedules, blueprints, and plans: Permanently
- Purchase orders (except purchasing department copy): 1 Year
- Purchase orders (purchasing department copy): 7 Years
- Receiving sheets: 1 Year
- Requisitions: 1 Year
- Sales records: 7 Years
- Savings bond registration records of employees: 3 Years
- Scrap and salvage records (inventories, sales, etc.): 7 Years
- Stenographer’s notebooks: 1 Year
- Stock and bond certificates (canceled): 7 Years
- Stockroom withdrawal forms: 1 Year
- Subsidiary ledgers: 7 Years
- Tax returns and worksheets, revenue agents’ reports and other documents relating to determination of income tax liability: Permanently
- Time books: 7 Years
- Trademark registrations: Permanently
- Voucher register and schedules: 7 Years
- Vouchers for payments to vendors, employees, etc. (includes allowances and reimbursement of employees, officers, etc., for travel and entertainment expenses): 7 Years
C&D | Tax Planning
This schedule is good to keep around, especially while you are cleaning your attic come spring. You can also reach out to us here at C&D, and we can go over old financial records together to see whether or not you should file them away. Give us a call to plan out your financial future with the help of record retention.
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