As a general rule of thumb, tax returns, financial statements and accounting records should be retained for a minimum of six years.
Record Retention Schedule for Businesses DocumentRetention Period Contracts and leases (expired) 7 years Correspondence, general 2 years Correspondence, legal and tax related Permanently Deeds, mortgages and bills of sale Permanently36 more rows
Minutes of meetings and company resolutions must be kept for at least 10 years from the date of the resolution or meeting to which they relate. Accounting and financial records should usually be kept for at least 6 years from the end of the financial year or accounting period to which they relate.
Keep Forever Birth Certificates. Adoption papers. Social Security Card. Custody agreements. Death Certificates. Divorce papers. Marriage certificates. Passports.
Six Key Steps to Developing a Record Retention Policy STEP 1: Identify Types of Records & Media. STEP 2: Identify Business Needs for Records & Appropriate Retention Periods. STEP 3: Addressing Creation, Distribution, Storage & Retrieval of Documents. STEP 4: Destruction of Documents. STEP 5: Documentation & Implementation.
Duration for records and accounts keeping You are required to retain the accounting records and supporting documents for 5 years. Failure to do so may result in: Expenses claimed being disallowed; or/ and.
SOX Retention Requirements – 7 Years Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) was modified in 2003 to require relevant auditing and review documents to be retained for seven years after the audit or review of the financial statements is concluded.
Accounting records Type of recordRetention period Bank statements and deposit slips 7 years Production and sales reports 7 years Employee expenses reports 7 years Annual financial statements Permanently3 more rows
The general consensus is that the minimum legal document retention time for most types of records should be at least six years, as this is the primary limitation period under the Limitation Act of 1980. Other legal documents, on the other hand, must be retained for a period of at least 15 years or more.