Should I Keep All My Old Documents? P45, P60, Payslips

anotheruser

I think I have about 20 P45s.
Should I Keep all of them from the last 5 years or so and bin the rest?

I'm happy to keep all P60s but I guess that means I can get rid of old payslips up until that P60?

Cheers

agrinnall

I don't think there's much value to a P45 past the tax year after the one in which it's issued. I keep my P60s and payslips, both in paper and electronic form.


Maybe you should concentrate your efforts on holding down a long term job, I've been working for 37 years and only had 6 jobs in that time, 1 temporary job for 6 months and the others as part of my career for between 3 and 12 years (into the 7th year of my current job).

Valli

Once I've got the P60 I shred the payslips.

getmore4less

Payslips don't take up a lot of room and have information that is not on a P60.
I have one box file for the lot that I would not fill working 60+years.

The new option is scan and create a record of them that way along with other stuff.
(remember to update/move electronic archive media every decade or so)

Wyndham

agrinnall wrote: »

Maybe you should concentrate your efforts on holding down a long term job, I've been working for 37 years and only had 6 jobs in that time, 1 temporary job for 6 months and the others as part of my career for between 3 and 12 years (into the 7th year of my current job).

That's quite judgemental! We don't know the OPs circumstances, and there could be very good reasons why they don't have/can't take a long term job.

I think when you started out 37 years ago, the working world was a rather different place. The idea of 'job for life' would still have been there, but it's now long gone.

I've been in the workplace for 24 years. My first job was 7 years, followed by two more at 4 years each. But since then I've had 7 jobs in the last 9 years. All stopped for very good reasons, but partly to do with short term contracts and a lack of permanent roles being available.

OP - keep your P60s as you may need to produce them to the tax office. P45s are not required once they have been passed on to the new employer and included in the pay calculations (you can see this on your payslips). I'd personally keep payslips for a couple of years, but mine tend to be electronic these days so easy to store and forget about!

lincroft1710

agrinnall wrote: »

Maybe you should concentrate your efforts on holding down a long term job, I've been working for 37 years and only had 6 jobs in that time, 1 temporary job for 6 months and the others as part of my career for between 3 and 12 years (into the 7th year of my current job).

6 jobs in 37 years? Far too many! Had only 2 employers in my whole 37 year working life, although several different roles and locations with 2nd employer

agrinnall

lincroft1710 wrote: »

6 jobs in 37 years? Far too many! Had only 2 employers in my whole 37 year working life, although several different roles and locations with 2nd employer

There was a good reason for 5 of the 6! The second job was to move from ICL to IBM to give myself a better chance of a job in NZ, which I got, then when I returned I contracted (the 12 year job) before converting to permanent at the client where I'd spent 8 years, and finally I've changed career entirely.

ReadingTim

agrinnall wrote: »

Maybe you should concentrate your efforts on holding down a long term job, I've been working for 37 years and only had 6 jobs in that time, 1 temporary job for 6 months and the others as part of my career for between 3 and 12 years (into the 7th year of my current job).

For some people (small departments, pyramid shaped professional career structure, AKA dead man's shoes etc) the only way to move up is to move on.

Accordingly, a series of long term jobs could be seen as a lack of ambition or success. Still, if you're proud of that...

bugslet

ReadingTim wrote: »

For some people (small departments, pyramid shaped professional career structure, AKA dead man's shoes etc) the only way to move up is to move on.

Accordingly, a series of long term jobs could be seen as a lack of ambition or success. Still, if you're proud of that...

Though as an employer I see it as reliability......

I've been in my job for 27 years and I've never been able to get a promotion since my first day as the MD:p

ReadingTim

bugslet wrote: »

Though as an employer I see it as reliability......

I've been in my job for 27 years and I've never been able to get a promotion since my first day as the MD:p

Most employers do indeed like keeping people reliably doing the job they hired them to do, rather than promoting them. You may not have had a promotion from your role, but no-one has had a promotion to it either...

bugslet

ReadingTim wrote: »

Most employers do indeed like keeping people reliably doing the job they hired them to do, rather than promoting them. You may not have had a promotion from your role, but no-one has had a promotion to it either...

Have you ever fancied running an international haulage company Tim? Make me a bid:D