To Shred or Not to Shred
That is the question many individuals have when it comes to tax time. With the varying expiration dates for assorted documents, knowing what to keep and what to destroy can be confusing. Here is a brief list to recap when to keep and when to destroy certain documents.
Paycheck stubs: keep these until you have successfully filed your taxes.
Credit Card receipts: unless needed for tax purposes, dispose of these each month after reconciling them with your monthly statement.
Bank / Credit Card statements: Typically these will only need to be kept for one year. However, you may want to keep a particular statement for upwards of 7 years if it contains transaction data that may be necessary for tax purposes.
Monthly investment statements: Generally should not be kept for longer than 30 days.
Annual investment statements: Hold these for 7 years past the date of selling any investments.
Health benefit documents: hold these for 1 year.
Utility records: Hold these for 3 years.
Tax documents and supporting records: keep these for 7 years after the tax filing date.
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