how long do you need to keep income tax returns?
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most say 7 years is enough
Read Records Keeping
The absolute least is 3 years from the filing deadline. Most pros recommend a minimum of 7 years though. Any records that carry anything forward or backward need to be kept as long as the carry forward or carry back applies. Such things would include records on a net operating loss or large capital loss carry forwards. If you realized a $100k capital loss with the recent market tanking, it could take up to 34 years to write it all down so you’d need to keep those records for 34 years plus at least 3 more from the filing deadline of the final return with the writeoff.
Alot of people say 7 years but the actual amount of time is 3 years. Employer got audited and he asked his auditor that is what she said.
That is always a good question. I personally have mine for about 25 years, but I tell others 7 years or more. The IRS has the authority to go back an unlimited number of years if they suspect a false or fraudulent return or if you failed to file.
Laura H – H&R Block – Senior Tax Advisor 5
**This advise was prepared based on our understanding of the tax law in effect at the time it was written as it applies to the facts that you provided.
The statute of limitations for auditing federal tax returns is 3 years and under certain circumstances 6 years. So the general recommendation is to keep the current year return, plus six past year returns, and all the supporting documentation. This makes 7 years. Some state tax laws have longer statutes of limitation and, therefore, sometimes a few additional years of returns and documents should be kept.
However, there is no statute of limitation if you did not file, so many prudent experts recommend that you keep the 1040 (or 1040A or 1040EZ) cover page of every tax return tax return you have filed to be able to prove that you actually filed for all the years. All supporting documents and schedules can be shredded after the above mentioned seven year period.
Richard K
Advice was prepared based upon the law in effect at the time it was written as applied to the facts described by you. See my profile for more information.
Technically forever! Why? There is no statute of limitations if you have failed to file. So to prove that I filed I keep all of mine.