What to keep for one year
Try to keep pay stubs for at least one year. Why? Because you’ll most likely want to verify the pieces of information provided on Form W-2. According to the Social Security Administration all employers have to send a copy of their W-2s each year, so that’s why it’s safer to keep it for at least one year.
If everything looks fine and the info matches, you can shred them. In fact, you can actually follow the same criteria when it comes to monthly brokerage statements. Shred them when there are no differences between year-end statements and Form 1099-s.
Next, what about for three years?…..
2 thoughts on “How Long Do I Need to Keep My Tax Records?”
I ran into a situation where I should have hung onto my pay records from 1988 (over 31 years ago). Reason: applied for social security disability. They claimed the year amount I made was wrong but I couldn’t prove otherwise which made my monthly payments smaller. Since then I came across a paper where I owed taxes for that year and had made payment to IRS each month for that year. So my opinion is the original amount was correct and they should owe me more each month.
I suggest keeping pay info such as w-2’s for life or until a person is on social security or in my case disability.
My husband, who has passed away, kept all of our tax paperwork for 40 years. I am going to moving into a much smaller house and would have to rent a storage facility to keep all that I currently have. So, I plan to deep 10 years worth of my tax filing information.