[junglebunny]

How many years should you save Tax Records? Someone had told me the IRS can only audit you seven years.

[Abe]

Hi,

Yes! while this is true about the IRS tax audit procedures. However with the improvement of technology and efiling. You can simply keep the info on a CD or scan your returns as a PDF format. This way you have all your tax records on a single disk or CD. Make sure you back up this data to be sure. Save three years or returns as paper and back up the rest on a CD as scanned documents. Hope this tip helps you. Thanks

[ozonew4m]

Yes i agree with the above post... with data space so cheap these days i see no positives in throwing any financial information away.. The way i keep mine is every six months i transfer all my tax records onto a cd and clearly mark it with the date... over the last seven years i have accumilated 14 cds which take up hardly any space and has cost me next to nothing..

i really dont see the value in disposing of any financial information...

as a side note: if you do throw anything away... shred it first

[JOHNSON]

atleast for six years, someone should save all tax records.

[northark]

According to the IRS, the amount of time is six years. Most people will keep copy of their returns for seven years, just to be on the safe side. In my own personal opinion, I would keep all copies indefinitely. The reason behind this is I have seen tax cases where they will dig back more than 10 years and claim you owe them money. This is what has happened to a close friend of mine. They actually pulled tax records from 15 years ago saying she owes them money on back taxes.

[busybeehelpers]

I think usually about seven years as the first poster said. You have to have careful records of course in case you get audited.

[Ricardo]

In Canada, I've heard the figure seven years, but my tax consultant advises to keep them for ten years.

That's scary, hearing about the person who was asked for money from longer ago than that, as northark mentioned.

[silverstreak]

Originally Posted by northark

According to the IRS, the amount of time is six years. Most people will keep copy of their returns for seven years, just to be on the safe side. In my own personal opinion, I would keep all copies indefinitely. The reason behind this is I have seen tax cases where they will dig back more than 10 years and claim you owe them money. This is what has happened to a close friend of mine. They actually pulled tax records from 15 years ago saying she owes them money on back taxes.

How could that be? I mean, did this person do her income tax herself or get a professional to do it? I go to H & R Block to get mine done and let me tell you, I have had some tax people tell me different things. One person’s idea of the rules conflicted with another. So where’s the consistency and who does one trust if they are all supposed to be trained by the same place?

[silverstreak]

One more question: is the IRS more stringent on people who do their own taxes as opposed to those who go to a professional? I just wondered if anyone has experienced this discrepancy?