Keeping Financial Paperwork

silver_pennies

Please can anyone tell me how long you should keep paperwork such as bank statements, credit card statements and utility bills?

Mark7799

Six years (perhaps this should be a sticky?)

cottager

Doesn't that depend on whether you're talking about someone in business or a private individual?

My husband is self-employed with a small business which I'm not part of -- I have my own day job under PAYE etc. I could never fix in my mind how long we were supposed to keep the business records for tax purposes and checked with our accountant again quite recently, and also if it was different for me.

Bearing in mind that as a sole trader he the individual is the same 'entity' as the business, she said we should keep his records for the past 6 tax years, which includes not only the business paperwork, computer accounts backups etc, but also anything personal in his own or our joint names such as credit card and bank statements, bills etc... so in practice we hold on to anything his name appears on.

But for me as a private bod not involved with the business, she said only the past 3 tax years were necessary and this applies to anything in my sole name, so for instance I could dispose of bank or credit card statements after that time so long as mine was the only name on the accounts, plus payslips from my own job etc etc.

NAR

cottager wrote: »

But for me as a private bod not involved with the business, she said only the past 3 tax years were necessary and this applies to anything in my sole name, so for instance I could dispose of bank or credit card statements after that time so long as mine was the only name on the accounts, plus payslips from my own job etc etc.

If you get divorced you may be asked to provide financial information covering the last 5 years.

cottager

NAR wrote: »

If you get divorced you may be asked to provide financial information covering the last 5 years.

Ah, is that so... thanks for the correction. Better not get divorced for another 2 years then, after my last clear-out

IM

In the process of a major paperwork clear-out and have been looking for an answer on this one.

Forgive my ignorance on this one, but why do I keep all this stuff - especially given all the fears about identity fraud...?

On the one hand, there are those encouraging us to shred everything and bury the remains in lead-lined containers under cover of darkness whilst wearing a balaclava.

On the other, I'm supposed to keep every piece of paper that enters the house - and just to be helpful to any potential burglars, keep it clearly labelled in a cross-referenced filing system.

And where do I stand given that I don't get paper bills for credit cards, utilities etc.?

Confused....