If you have at least 15 employees, anti-discrimination laws require you to keep employment records for one year from the date the record was made or personnel action was taken. You may need them for credit purposes, and they help provide you with a snapshot of how your business has done over time. Keep these financial statements indefinitely.
#BUSINESS DOCUMENTS KEPT IN FIRE PROOF SAFES DOWNLOAD#
If you receive your bank and credit card statements electronically, download any statements you need for tax purposes and keep them for seven years.Īs a small business owner, you create financial documents that may include income (or P&L) statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements. Paper bank and credit card statements generally can be discarded after a year, unless you need them to support your tax returns. Bank Statements and Other Financial Records Depending on how your business is structured, these include your business formation documents bylaws articles of organization lists of shareholders, members, and directors annual reports meeting minutes and trademark, copyright, and patent registrations. Keep your official business records permanently. So, to be conservative, keep these documents for seven years after you no longer own the property. The IRS says to keep business property records until the limitations period expires for the year you dispose of the property. These records help you calculate depreciation, amortization, and depletion deductions, as well as the gain or loss when you dispose of business property, such as vehicles, real estate, and equipment. These records include your employer identification number, employee information (such as Social Security numbers and dates of employment), amounts of wages and tips, copies of employment tax returns, W-4 forms, and records of fringe benefits. Employment Tax Recordsįollow IRS recommendations and hang on to employment tax records for four years after the date the tax is due or the date you paid the tax, whichever comes later. You may need them to prepare future tax returns or for other purposes. After that, you can destroy the supporting documents but keep your business tax returns permanently. This will cover just about any scenario that could come up. To be on the safe side, keep your business tax returns-plus the receipts and other documents that support your numbers-for seven years. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recommends keeping tax returns and supporting documents until after two different dates have passed: the deadline for you to amend your return to get a credit or refund, and until the time runs out for the IRS to assess additional taxes. Use this quick and easy guide to help you decide what to save and what to toss. It depends on the kinds of business documents you have, and how old they are. Looking at your overflowing files, you may wonder, "Do I really need to keep all this stuff?" If you run a small business, it's amazing how much paper you can accumulate and how quickly your digital storage space fills up.