You can toss most tax paperwork once a return is three years old, because the IRS’s usual window to question it has closed. Some states take longer than the IRS, so check yours. Keep the records that set the tax on what you still own, like a home or investments, until three years after you report the sale.
A return filed on time in April 2023 crossed the three-year mark in April 2026, and so did every return filed before it.
The clock runs from the day you file or the day the return is due, whichever is later, so filing in February doesn’t start it early.
For most returns past the three-year mark, the W-2s, 1099s, bank statements, and deduction receipts behind them can go. The federal window stays open longer in a few cases. Keep records six years if you left out income worth more than a quarter of the gross income you reported. Make it seven if you claimed a loss on worthless securities or a bad-debt deduction. If you didn’t file a return, or filed a fraudulent one, keep them indefinitely. States set their own windows, and some run longer than the IRS’s three years. California’s is usually four.
The papers worth keeping for years are the ones that set the tax on something you’ll sell or withdraw later. Keep them until three years after you report the sale or the last withdrawal they cover.
- Purchase records and improvement receipts for your home, which shrink the taxable gain if your profit tops the home sale exclusion
- Records of what you paid for any investment whose cost your broker doesn’t report, such as stock bought before 2011
- Form 8606 and any other record of after-tax money you put in a traditional IRA
- Receipts for medical bills a health savings account will reimburse you for later
The IRS also says to keep copies of your filed returns, which help when you prepare future ones.
Scan what you keep, and shred what you toss, since tax forms carry your Social Security number. Then repeat the sort each spring, as another year’s papers cross the three-year mark.
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