IRS Record Retention Schedule | Tally Services

As a business owner, it can be challenging to maintain all the paperwork and documentation needed for tax purposes. It’s even more challenging to find that you have to keep many documents for a number of years, and some forever. In this blog, we’ll cover the IRS record retention schedule for each kind of documentation your business may have.

The retention period is the number of years you must keep the documentation from the date the tax return was filed to the date you are able to destroy it. So if your company has any of the following documents, you will need to keep them on hand and organized for the following number of years:

• Accident reports/claims (settled cases) – 7 years

• Accounts payable ledgers and schedules – 7 years

• Accounts receivable ledgers and schedules – 7 years

• Audit reports – Permanently

• Bank reconciliations – 2 years

• Bank statements – 3 years

• Capital stock and bond records: ledgers, transfer registers, stubs showing issues, record of interest coupons, options, etc. – Permanently

• Cash books – Permanently

• Charts of accounts – Permanently

• Checks (canceled – see exception in the next bullet) – 7 years

  • Checks (canceled for important payments – i.e., taxes, purchases of property, special contracts, etc. Checks should be filed with the papers pertaining to the underlying transaction.) – Permanently

• Contracts, mortgages, notes, and leases (expired) – 7 years

• Contracts, mortgages, notes, and leases (still in effect) – Permanently

• Correspondence (general) – 2 years

• Correspondence (legal and important matters only) – Permanently

• Correspondence (routine) with customers and/or vendors – 2 years

• Deeds, mortgages, and bills of sale – Permanently

• Depreciation schedules – Permanently

• Duplicate deposit slips – 2 years

• Employment applications – 3 years

• Expense analyses/expense distribution schedules – 7 years

• Financial statements (year-end, other optional) – Permanently

• Garnishments – 7 years

• General/private ledgers, year-end trial balance – Permanently

• Insurance policies (expired) – 3 years

• Insurance records, current accident reports, claims, policies, etc. – Permanently

• Internal audit reports – 3 years

• Internal reports (miscellaneous) – 3 years

• Inventories of products, materials, and supplies – 7 years

• Invoices (to customers, from vendors) – 7 years

• Journals – Permanently

• Minute books of directors, stockholders, bylaws, and charter – Permanently

• Notes receivable ledgers and schedules – 7 years

• Option records (expired) – 7 years

• Patents and related papers – Permanently

• Payroll records and summaries – 7 years

• Personnel files (terminated) – 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, year-end 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

• Retirement and pension records – Permanently

• Requisitions – 1 year

• Sales commission reports – 3 years

• Sales records – 7 years

• Scrap and salvage records (inventories, sales, etc.) – 7 years

• Stenographers’ notebooks – 1 year

• Stocks and bonds 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/cards – 7 years

• Trademark registrations and copyrights – Permanently

• Training manuals – Permanently

• Union agreements – 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

• Withholding tax statements – 7 years

Does your business utilize electronic records? Read more about the IRS guidelines for these types of files here. For other specific business-related records retention questions, please check out this Business Documents: What To Keep and for How Long? blog for more information.

If at any point your business gets audited, you want to sell the business, look for new investors, or take out a business loan – you will need to have many of these historical documents on hand. It’s best to keep them organized and easy to find when you need them.  

Creating and maintaining a system to manage all your important tax documents for the required retention period is an important part of successfully running any business. If your company is struggling to do this, the accounting professionals on the Tally Services team are here to help you determine and implement the accounting and document management practices that will protect your business. Tally Services partners with businesses of all sizes to provide top-notch accounting and bookkeeping services. If you have questions about this list or need help getting organized, contact us today to get started!