The tax season is a particularly stressful time of year, probably more stressful than even the holiday season. It is all the truer if you run, own, or manage a law firm or corporate office. When you look around at your desk now, you probably have stacks of tax records you would rather not see anymore. In fact, anything with the word ‘tax’ on it might be giving you flashbacks.
To get rid of all your sensitive tax records, shredding them is a great option. But before you jump at the chance to shred your firm’s tax records, take a moment to see if you still need them. Some forms are clear to be cleared out relatively soon after tax season, but others are best to keep on-hand for years, just in case of an IRS audit.
This is how long you should keep your company’s tax records in physical copies before shredding them:
- One year: Paystubs can be safely shredded after a year in most cases, as long as everything checks out with W-2s.
- Three years: The majority of your tax records — from W-2s and Form 1099s to Form 1098s and other miscellaneous documents — should be kept for a full three years. Why? The IRS has three years to audit you or your business for suspected tax fraud or errors in most cases. Once three years are up, though, all of that paperwork becomes a security liability, so you should get to shredding.
- Six years: If you are running a private firm of your own, you might be reporting your own income to the IRS. In this case, the IRS has six full years to audit you if they think you have failed to report at least 25% of your income. Hold onto everything tax and income related for at least six years before shredding to be safe. To decrease your chances of getting audited as someone who is reporting their own income, work with a tax professional each year to make certain you aren’t overlooking a source of income.
When It’s Time to Shred, Come to the Best
Now that you know what tax records you should and should not keep around, it is time to get the unneeded or old documents out of the way with a good shred. Acro Photo Print Inc. in New York City can help your law firm, corporation, or small business safely and securely shred tax records. We have advanced shredding machines much stronger and faster than anything you can get from the office retail store, making massive amounts of document destruction a breeze. With our dedication to your satisfaction, and to regulatory compliance, you can be confident that no one will get a strip of shredded tax records once our shredding service is done with them.
Call (929) 244-4322 today to arrange a shredding service for your company’s tax forms.