How long should I keep my taxpapers?

According to the IRS, you should keep your records 3 years, 6 years, 7 years or permanently. It all depends on the time limit you are allowed to amend your taxes, or the time limit that the IRS can come after you to assess additional taxes.

For instance, the IRS advises, if you filed a fraudulent return, or did not file a return at all, you should hang on to your tax filing and/or records indefinitely (this is actually what they say). There is no limit to the time the IRS can come after you.

If you don't report income you should have, and it's more than a quarter of your gross income, keep records for six years.

You may actually want to keep your tax records for longer than may be required for the IRS, for insurance, business or other reasons.

For a full recap, check the IRS site here http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=98513,00.html

This answer was edited by TWinston 422 days ago.

Reason: Small addition

When you are lucky enough to be chosen for audit, the IRS will expect you to have, on hand, 7 years of tax related documents. Everything, and I mean everything must be accounted for. For example, if you do not have the paperwork for the car you purchased and wrote off the taxes on, you will have to pay the difference back, with interest, and over the course of 7 years, something as simple as a $20k car would end up costing you penalties of $25,000 dollars.

It is a good idea to keep your tax papers for up to 7 years or even more just to be safe. You never know when something will come up that requires your past income tax return papers. When you do decide to discard them, remember to take safety precautions to safeguard your personal information such as your social security number.

If you are reffering to the receipts, you should keep them forever. If you are talking about how long should you wait to do your taxes, it would depend on if you are going to owe money or if you are geting money.

Thanks for the award for the question, "How long should I keep my taxpapers?" Great question. Just remember you never know when you may need a record of your tax documents, so keep it all in a safe organized preferably fire proof place.