Do I need to save every single tax form?

RealGem

Hi, I need to declutter and I have saved every wages slip and every tax form relating to employment since the mid 80s!

I now want to shred as much as possible. I have a LOT of tax forms, and as I had a lot of jobs I got a lot of P45s and P60s!

I've photographed a lot of wage slips for pension purposes (I'm 55 now). But can I get rid of most of my old tax forms, as surely the tax office will have all my records?

What can I get rid of and what do I need to save?

Thanks

eskbanker

https://www.gov.uk/keeping-your-pay-tax-records/how-long-to-keep-your-records states the HMRC position:

Tax returns sent on or before the deadline

You should keep your records for at least 22 months after the end of the tax year the tax return is for.

Example

If you send your 2021 to 2022 tax return online by 31 January 2023, keep your records until at least the end of January 2024.

Tax returns sent after the deadline

You should keep your records for at least 15 months after you sent the tax return.

Jeremy535897

Martin Lewis advised people to keep records like bank statements forever. You never know. In theory HMRC can go back up to 20 years (but only where fraud is involved). I would not rush to get rid of records.

RealGem

eskbanker said:

https://www.gov.uk/keeping-your-pay-tax-records/how-long-to-keep-your-records states the HMRC position:

Tax returns sent on or before the deadline

You should keep your records for at least 22 months after the end of the tax year the tax return is for.

Example

If you send your 2021 to 2022 tax return online by 31 January 2023, keep your records until at least the end of January 2024.

Tax returns sent after the deadline

You should keep your records for at least 15 months after you sent the tax return.

Thanks a lot eskbanker!

Jeremy535897 said:

Martin Lewis advised people to keep records like bank statements forever. You never know. In theory HMRC can go back up to 20 years (but only where fraud is involved). I would not rush to get rid of records.

Thank you Jeremy!

p00hsticks

RealGem said:

I now want to shred as much as possible. I have a LOT of tax forms, and as I had a lot of jobs I got a lot of P45s and P60s!

I've photographed a lot of wage slips for pension purposes (I'm 55 now). But can I get rid of most of my old tax forms, as surely the tax office will have all my records?

Personally I hang onto my P45s and P60's and have got rid of the corresponding wage slips.

I've also hung onto copies of my self-assessment forms when  I had to do them (not for many years, thank goodness), but scanned them rather than retaining the paper.

RealGem

p00hsticks said:

RealGem said:

I now want to shred as much as possible. I have a LOT of tax forms, and as I had a lot of jobs I got a lot of P45s and P60s!

I've photographed a lot of wage slips for pension purposes (I'm 55 now). But can I get rid of most of my old tax forms, as surely the tax office will have all my records?

Personally I hang onto my P45s and P60's and have got rid of the corresponding wage slips.

I've also hung onto copies of my self-assessment forms when  I had to do them (not for many years, thank goodness), but scanned them rather than retaining the paper.

Ok thanks I will keep them. 

Pennywise

Personally, I'd suggest you keep P45s and P60s forever.  No, HMRC don't keep copies going back to year dot.  I've had a fair few clients who've had "gaps" in their NIC history due to HMRC not processing the payroll documents properly.  If the old fashioned "paper" documents got lost within HMRC before processing, they're gone forever.  Obviously, all very different now, as for the last 20 years or so, electronic submissions have been required, so in theory HMRC should at least have electronic versions which avoids the problem of lost paperwork.

calcotti

This will not be material if you are retired but if you are still working age I would retain all period 12 payslips or final payslips from any particular employment because P60 and P45 don’t show pension contributions. When my wife was about to retire from a public sector organisation it became clear that her employer had not been reporting contribution correctly to the scheme administrator. If we hadn’t had the payslips it would have been very difficult to sort out and she would have missed out on several years of pension entitlement.