How Long Do You Need To Keep A Paper Trail?

This morning I managed to get all of my 2010 tax info entered into a spreadsheet to send off to my best friend/accountant.  Well, by email that is ,since she lives out of province.  I'm actually ahead of the game this year which is a nice feeling since the last 2 years I waited until the June 15the deadline. That's the deadline for business owners, just in case you're wondering. 

Just before I started, I looked at an envelope containing previous tax returns and was thinking about how long I have to hang on to them.

As a professional organizer, I have helped clients organize their home offices and you can't even begin to imagine the amount of papers that have taken over desks, have been stuffed into file cabinets and have migrated to the floors.  Some clients have had documents and paperwork dating back to the mid 90's! There are some things you need to keep forever but a lot of stuff can be tossed after a short period of time.  I highly recommend using a shredder so that you can safely discard your documents and protect yourself from identity theft.

If you're wondering how long you need to keep a records of things, here is a guideline that you can follow:

Anything tax related: 7 years

Bank statements and cancelled cheques: 30 days (make sure you check your statements and go paperless if you feel comfortable)

Financial statements: 30 days

Stocks and bond records: length that you own them

Credit card information: 30 days if you want to dispute something; up to 7 years if you need it for tax purposes. If you've purchased something that has a warranty, keep the statement/receipt as proof of purchase until it's no longer valid.

RRSP - permanently

Major purchaase, warranties, instructions: for the length of time you own them.

I hope this allows you to do away with a lot of unnecessary paperwork that may be cluttering up your space. Setting up a filing system for your personal papers will make it easier for you to find those important those important documents when you need them.

If you need help getting started, just email me at info@theurbanorganizer.ca

Marie