I worked in offices and it was 5 to 7 years. Checks were 7. IMO, five is long enough. Mom had a lien and that was satisfied when the house was sold. I have a letter from Medicaid that the lien wmas satisfied. When it comes down to it they are gone. Family is not responsible for anything concerning him. Me, I will probably hang onto the lien paperwork for a while longer but the application and acceptance I will get rid of once I sit down and clean out. Mom has been gone 6 yrs.
JoAnn, you are correct, businesses have a different threshold to meet then a dead person.
Our corporation is setup to keep everything for 10 years per our policies. We will be changing that to reflect the current requirements by law. 10 years is crazy.
I would either scan them (pdf) or take good quality pics of them (jpeg, jnp) and store them on a thumb or external hard drive or in the cloud and ditch the papers.
You might be guided on what property if any was disposed of, or how difficult or expensive a document would be to replace if actually needed. A small scanner (Epson about the size of a 3 hole punch) can scan those onto a flash drive or a file on your computer.
Sometimes having old documents can cause problems. I think it was Texaco that got in trouble re Getty Oil back in the day. If old documents had not been available any longer (perfectly legal) they wouldn’t have had to be turned over (illegal to not turn over since they still had them). $$$$.
Sherry, states go by what the IRS requires for documents being retained. I would keep them at least the 3 years they require and if nothing is brought up during that time, you should be safe to shred them.
Edit: you do not need to keep them past 3 years, from the last tax return. A good idea doesn't mean it is the law or required. 10 years isn't required by ANY governing agency.
Our corporation is setup to keep everything for 10 years per our policies. We will be changing that to reflect the current requirements by law. 10 years is crazy.
Sometimes having old documents can cause problems. I think it was Texaco that got in trouble re Getty Oil back in the day. If old documents had not been available any longer (perfectly legal) they wouldn’t have had to be turned over (illegal to not turn over since they still had them). $$$$.
It had been 19 years.
I think Alva makes a good poiint. 19 years is too long. 10 would have been better.
Edit: you do not need to keep them past 3 years, from the last tax return. A good idea doesn't mean it is the law or required. 10 years isn't required by ANY governing agency.