For how many years do you keep:

[no_hypocrisy]

1) Checking and banking statements (personal and business), and

2) Statements of past paid bills (e.g., electric, celphone, phone)?

I heard seven years. Is this right?

I want to get rid of serious clutter and your advice is humbly solicited.

[demmiblue]

1. I don't keep any of those, but I am interested to see what others say. n/t

[tekisui]

2. 1) I don't. 2) Until the check clears.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. The question really is, how long must you keep these things?

Your question was, how long DO you keep them. In my case, that's pretty much forever, or at least until it occurs to me to get rid of them. Not too long ago I found bank statements from the 1990s, which I threw away. I think you could get rid of 20-year-old bank statements. For tax records, here's some info: http://www.irs.gov/publications/p552/ar02.html

[cordelia]

4. This is based on what I was told when I first left home

in 1976, so it is probably dated now that technology has advanced. I don't even get paper statements anymore.

1. 7 years

2. Check clears.

[slackmaster]

5. You don't really need to keep any personal statements beyond a month or three

Just check them every month to make sure there aren't any glaring errors, then shred and recycle or burn.

For business statements, I'll defer to people who own businesses for a good answer.

I keep paycheck stubs indefinitely for some reason.

[Carolina]

6. I have all my tax statements

in a file cabinet and I am nearly 60! But I am about to purge the early decades and keep only the last 7 years which is what I have heard as well!

As for other things, I keep only the receipts and service records for large items: appliances and cars.

[DURHAM D]

14. Both of my parents have recently died.

They were good at purging but had saved all of their tax returns. Self and siblings spent a whole weekend going through them. After going through them we definitely decided to keep them. I think they thought we would find them interesting/entertaining and we did. Also, my Mother had saved some of her parents returns. They tell the family story - not just financially but it also tracks moves. After going through the returns we got in the car and went to find and take pictures of every house my family had ever lived in.

I have all of my returns and I am 67. Its shocking how little I made in earlier years.

IOWs - I would not throw them away if you have a way/place to keep them.

[Carolina]

20. thanks

you have me rethinking the idea of shredding them. Yes, they do tell a story. Plus, they have been in that file cabinet all these years, so what's another decade or 2... if I'm lucky?! :hi:

[pipi_k]

22. After my MIL died in 2005 we discovered all sorts of documents

some going back to the early 1970s. Tax records, etc.


Anyway, this thread reminds me that I have to go through my own stuff and throw out old (paid) credit card statements and similar items older than one year.

[sufrommich]

7. Start by changing your bank statement to electronic statements.

That's what I do at my Credit Union.

[demodonkey]

19. Just be aware that if you are ever required to produce your records...

... and in a lawsuit or dispute or for medical assistance you could be required to produce YEARS of records, you will probably be required to print all electronic records out. Could be hundreds and hundreds of pages, and could be very costly.

Dispute with a greedy hospital (see my post #15 below) has already cost my mother (and me) hundreds of dollars just for photocopying fees and paper/printer ink.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

8. Seven years is what I was always told BUT........

I recently put in for retirement and was required to provide information from over 20 years ago and would have been totally screwed if I had not been able to find my tax return from 1994. Based on this experience, I would say just keep the shit forever cause you never know what "the man" will do to try to screw you.

[LiberalFighter]

11. Was that a company or SSA?

[TNDemo]

18. Some things to think about.

I had always heard seven years for tax returns so when my mother got Alzheimer's and I was cleaning out her place I ditched all but the last seven years of tax records. Then her husband of 30 years decided to divorce her and as conservator I had to negotiate that divorce. I was sure he was fudging about his money because I remembered various income items for him in years past, but there was no way I could prove it. So for the little space the returns would have taken up, I now wish I had kept them.

Also I got my social security statement (when they finally started issuing them) and they said I made no income for one year in the 1980s, which was not true. Since I had my returns, I was able to show my W2 and tax return to prove it.

As far as credit card and banking statements, I do keep them for a few years because there have been several times I had to research out a purchase I had made.

I am pretty ruthless with decluttering otherwise but I do keep a drawer or two for this stuff.

[JoePhilly]

9. 5 is probably enough for most things, but ...

I actually try to purge the dull stuff, like electric and phone every 3 years or so.

But I'll be saving mortgage, car / student loans, tax returns, and medical statements forever.

1) I once had major surgery and most of it was covered by my insurance, and I paid my part of it as well. More than 3 years later, a collection agency contacted me and claimed I owed one of the doctors over $3000. Because I had my records, I could prove that I fully paid. Another guy with a similar last name had the same surgery in the same week, and at some point, the billing office had concluded that he and I were the same patient.

2) Had the IRS chase me for more than $1000 4 years after one return. My wife's employer had made a mistake on her original W2 and had informed the IRS as part of dealing with their own tax issues a few years later (never told us of course). Turned out we only owed $300.

3) Had a credit agency ding our credit once for a 2 year old "late bill" which was not late. We'd actually paid the thing off one month early, and so for some reason, in what would have been the "last month" we made no payment because we didn't owe them anything. But they marked us as "missing one payment". Made them get the problem removed from my credit score.

4) Paid off my wife's student loans, only to receive repeated requests for an additional payment (~$200) about 6 months later. They continued to threaten us, so I sent all the documentation to the State Attorney General. About a month later, I received an apology letter from the lender.

[Gabi Hayes]

10. I throw most of that stuff away without looking at it.

that's what Newt does with his jewelry bills

[Speck Tater]

12. Why keep them at all?

Utility bills and other recurring items like that I keep 1 month, until the next statement shows that the previous payment was received and credited.

Personal checks I don't keep at all. I have paperless statements.

The only things that need to be kept for individuals is things that you have deducted (or plan to deduct) on your income tax forms. For an individual, if it's not deductible there's no reason to keep it. Of course for a business you need to keep everything because everything impacts your bottom line and you need to be able to prove your bottom line to the IRS if asked.

Since all my income is tax-exempt (S.S. retirement) I don't even file tax returns so I don't keep anything at all. It all goes in the shredder after one month.

[HipChick]

13. The IRS reserves the right to audit you for 7yrs

[demodonkey]

15. Keep EVERYTHING pretty much forever if anyone in your family ever needs medical care.

Since my father's death in the early 1990s, my mother and I live together, and share our finances and ownership of our home. Until his death in 2007 my disabled adult brother lived with us also.

My mother has Medicare and an extremely good medicare supplemental insurance that even covers some skilled nursing time after a hospital stay.

Without going into the long and sordid details, let me tell you that in late 2008 I was forced by a greedy and incompetent "nonprofit" hospital to apply for Medical Assistance (Medicaid) for my mother, to try to get her temporarily into a skilled nursing facility (admission should have been covered by her Medicare and supplemental insurance but please believe me in order to get her out of this hospital I was very much forced to apply for Medicaid.)

The medical assistance process was hideously invasive. The caseworker demanded to see every single scrap of financial paper for our entire household for the last 5 years. (This thanks to GW Bush's Deficit Reduction Act.) By every scrap of paper, I mean every receipt for every tank of gas, every bag of groceries, even every cup of coffee anyone in my family ever bought. I was asked to look at bills from years before and identify who they were "for." Any money from our household funds that was spent on me (even my own money), or on my then-deceased disabled brother, or if I couldn't remember the transaction, that amount was counted as a "gift" my mother had made and counted toward making her ineligible for medical assistance for a time.

My family's financial choices and living arrangements, and my own life choices were probed and questioned. The Welfare Department implied that we were remiss in not saving every single receipt (no matter how small) and every scrap of financial paper -- along with notes as to how every penny in the household was spent.

After these sessions at the Department of Welfare, I felt so horribly violated I would come home and take a shower.

In the end my mother got no further therapy and no help from anyone but me; she eventually checked herself out of this hospital against medical advice and came home where she and I have lived happily for the past two and a half years since this horrible episode (except for further legal issues initiated by this hospital in which our finances have been further probed and threatened.)

If you are unlucky enough to get sick or become disabled, there are forces in our so-called health"care" system that are out to grab everything you and maybe even your family owns, if they can get their hands on it. Even if you have "good" insurance; insurance can't pay if it is never billed. I have come to realize that in the event you get into one of these healthcare messes, every financial paper, every insurance report, and every doctor's "bill" (even if it says "this is not a bill") has to be saved -- assuming the (so-called) healthcare provider ever actually sends you a bill instead of simply taking you to collections or court first and asks questions later.

The upshot of this is that I am now afraid to throw anything away, not even the smallest receipt for anything. If one gets lost or unreadable, I worry, not to mention that I am not a professional file clerk and it is hard to keep order in this mess of receipts, papers, and mail. I am no hoarder, but due to the mass of paperwork parts of our home are starting to look like one lives here.

Good luck.

[Fumesucker]

17. Thanks for that..

It sounds like excellent advice.

:hi:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. The statute of limitations for the IRS is seven years

I changed jobs in 1986 and was able to roll my pension contributions under my pre-1986 employer into an IRA.

In 1990, the IRS came after me to pay income tax on the "windfall" I'd gotten when I withdrew my pension contributions. Fortunately, I still had the paperwork for setting up the IRA, so I was able to prove that I rolled the money over into a tax-free account instead of spending it.

Whew!

[Manifestor_of_Light]

21. I have a land grant from 1845. Does that count?

Signed by Anson Jones, last president of The Republic of Texas.

:rofl:

[TBF]

24. I'd keep that -

it might come in handy if Perry secedes ;)

[Manifestor_of_Light]

27. Maybe The Republic will rise again???

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. What country?

Yes, serious question.. Mexico ten years.

The US... I think five...

[dems_rightnow]

25. Mostly 7 years

The IRS can generally only audit 3 years, but can go back 7 in uncommon situations. They'll ask for bank statements in an audit, so you should be able to produce them.

Cellphone and other bills that you didn't deduct can be disposed of pretty much immediately.

Records of property purchases and sales should be kept indefinitely. Stock purchases and sales at least 3 years after you've sold the investment.

[LeftyMom]

26. I don't.

If I need them I can get them from the company involved (in the case of utility bills) or my credit union (in the case of my monthly statements.) I've NEVER needed to show anything but current information for either.