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What documents do you keep?

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FireLane:
I'm doing my annual document purge. I'm trying to decide what to save and what to throw out, and I'm curious how other Mustachians handle this. What do you keep and what do you not keep?

I keep credit card statements, bank statements, and EOBs from my health insurance for a year, then shred them. I scan income tax returns and supporting documents, like W-2s, and keep those forever. But there are some categories of stuff that I'm not so sure about.

1. How long should I keep receipts for medical bills that I paid with an HSA? The IRS says to keep records for three years, because that's the audit deadline... unless you're committing fraud, in which case you should keep them indefinitely.

But another way of saying this is that they can audit you for any past year they want, if they think you committed fraud. Does this mean I should keep receipts forever? What's an adequate level of paranoia?

2. My car needed a recall a few years ago to fix a defective air bag inflator. I have paperwork from a dealership proving that the work was done. Is this something I should keep? Is there any chance I'd need this if I sell the car?

Dave1442397:
Anything electronic I just keep. I have a separate folder for each thing by year, ie 2025 Medical, 2025 Taxes, etc. It's just storage space, so why not keep everything?

For the HSA, I scan or download receipts as we get them, and again, I just keep everything. I was uploading all my expenses to my HSA account, but my employer has changed HSA providers twice in the past couple of years, so I decided to let the cash roll over to the new employer HSA provider, but I'm rolling the investments over to a personal HSA account I'm setting up at Fidelity. I will start uploading all claims with supporting docs to my personal HSA account, as well as keeping an excel spreadsheet for my own benefit.

The recall work should show up here - https://vinrcl.safercar.gov/vin/

You can always print it off for a prospective buyer, or just point them to the website.

GuitarStv:
Is there not some kind of limitation on stuff for the IRS?  In Canada you only need to keep tax info for six years - after that they don't bother.

AuspiciousEight:
Tax documents and anything tax related I keep forever, basically, including medical receipts for hsa.

Everything digital I keep forever. Hard drives are cheap.

Everything else I throw away.

MrGreen:
I digitize everything except owner's manuals for products that we own.

I keep digital copies of all tax returns, 1009s, associated statements, etc. I don't throw away old years mainly because I find it helpful to refer to a one-off form I might have to file in the future if that tax situation arose.

I don't bother with any bank or credit card statements because all the websites already keep digital copies for at least 2-3 years.

I do keep digital receipts of as many medical expenses as I can so that when we start pulling HSA funds we have the corresponding medical expenses documented in case there's an audit.

I keep digital copies of all receipts and work for our car as long as we have the vehicle. At a minimum, it will increase the resale value if we ever wanted to sell it because we can prove the car has been well taken care of.

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