MSE News: Time to bin old tax records

What is the position if you are Unemployed or Retired?

stphnstevey wrote: »

Why? Why? Why?

No news recently? Have to bulk out the number of articles?

Why would you tell people to bin tax records!!!!

Cos it's helpful - I thought that I had to keep 7 years of info so it's really good to hear that I only need 22 months, so will be spending this weekend shredding.

:j

No need to be so mealy mouthed! If it's not relevant/helpful/useful to you just move on.

Just because "you can", please don't go and shred everything just because the time limits gone by. Having the paperwork may well help your interests in the future for many reasons. What you need to do is "weed" rather than shred. If you've got, say, six files of papers for say 02/3, aim to weed it down to 1 file of papers that may come in handy one day. By all means get rid of the small and insignificant stuff, i.e. postage, stationery, petrol receipts, etc., but you really should keep the bigger stuff for a bit longer "just in case", i.e. bank statements, P45/P60s, bills for cars/equipment you still own, legal paperwork, i.e. buying/selling a house, divorce, death of relative, wills, and for major building works/improvements to your properties. A few reasons to weed instead of shred:-

1. HMRC can go back longer if they have grounds for belief of tax evasion so if you've kept at least some of the more important records, you are better placed to defend yourself.
2. You never know when you'll need proof of purchase for your equipment, car, properties, etc - keeping it will help you make claims if things go wrong - insurance companies sometimes insist on purchase invoices when you make a claim.
3. Your original purchase details and proof of property improvements will be needed when you come to sell your property if it's been used for business or has been rented out - i.e. for capital gains tax computations - in such cases, the time limits apply from date of sale, not date of purchase.
4. Re wills/death, etc., when the second spouse dies, you'll probably need full details of the first spouse's death, i.e. probate, will, etc., both for inheritance tax purposes and to reduce/avoid complications and delay when selling property in joint names that passed to the survivor on death.
5. Businesses must keep employers liability insurance details for ever.

So, its a little simplistic to say "bin it all" after the specified time period. What you need to do is have a "weeding" policy and also have a "permanent" file for everything that you should really be keeping forever, such as legal papers. All this is for your own good, so even though Hector may let you off the hook in the short term, shredding too much could cause you a lot of hassle and maybe cost in the long term.

CosmicTen wrote: »

There is a nice mid-way solution. Scan every document in over the course of a month in a high resolution format and store a couple of copies on DVD, then shred. It'll take a while but you'll be covering yourself and getting rid of all that paperwork.

Anyone seen any sort of automatic scanners rather than a flat bed?

My brother 465CN has a 20 document feed so it auto scans upto 20 pages into imgaes text etc.
And it's networkable.