Key takeaways
- The baseline rule is open-ended. Treasury Regulations section 1.6001-1(e) says records must be kept "so long as the contents thereof may become material in the administration of any internal revenue law." The fixed income tax periods come from the deadlines for the IRS to assess tax and for you to claim a refund.
- For income tax records, three years runs from the date you filed, and a return filed early counts as filed on its due date. The seven-year period for totally worthless bad debts and worthless securities runs from the return's original due date instead.
- Employment tax records stay at least four years after the later of the date the tax was due or the date it was paid. The Labor Department's wage-hour rules and the Form I-9 rules run on clocks of their own.
- Copies of Forms 1099 and other information returns you filed: at least three years from their due date. Keep them at least four years for Form 1099-C, or when federal withholding, including backup withholding, was imposed.
- Property records stay until the limitations period ends for the year you dispose of the property, which can be many years after you bought it.
- "Keep everything for seven years" overshoots most records and undershoots some. Among the federal tax record-keeping periods, seven years covers one situation: a refund claim for a totally worthless bad debt or a worthless security.
Each record, how long, and when the clock starts
Federal tax rules, as of October 10, 2026. Unless a row says otherwise, "return" means the income tax return the records support. In the Rule column, IRC means the Internal Revenue Code and Treas. Reg. means the Treasury Regulations.
| Record | Keep at least | The clock starts | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Receipts, invoices, bank and card statements, and other records behind income and deductions | 3 years | The date the return was filed. A return filed before its due date counts as filed on the due date | IRC § 6501(a) and (b)(1) |
| The same records, when you file a claim for credit or refund after the return | 3 years from filing or 2 years from paying the tax, whichever ends later | The filing date or the payment date | IRC § 6511(a) |
| Records behind a deduction for a totally worthless bad debt or a loss from worthless securities | 7 years | The original due date of the return for that year, not counting extensions, rather than the date you filed | IRC § 6511(d)(1) |
| Records for a year in which you left out income of more than 25% of the gross income shown on the return | 6 years | The date the return was filed, with the same early-return rule as the three-year row | IRC § 6501(e)(1)(A) |
| Records for a year with no return filed, or with a false or fraudulent return filed to evade tax | No limit | None | IRC § 6501(c)(3) and (c)(1) |
| Employment tax records | 4 years | The later of the date the tax was due for the return period or the date it was paid | Treas. Reg. § 31.6001-1(e)(2) |
| Records of property and equipment: purchase, improvements, depreciation, and sale | Until the limitations period ends for the year you dispose of the property | The year of a taxable disposition | IRS records guidance and Publication 583 |
| Copies of Forms 1099 and other information returns you filed, or the ability to reconstruct the data | 3 years. 4 years for Form 1099-C, or if federal withholding, including backup withholding, was imposed | The due date of the information returns | IRS Publication 1099 (2026) |
| Records of transactions between a foreign-owned single-member LLC and related parties, reported on Form 5472 | As long as they may be relevant or material, and never less than the limitations period for the year affected | See the section on foreign owners below | Treas. Reg. § 1.6038A-3(g) |
Two details in that table are easy to get wrong. The "filed early counts as filed on the due date" rule in section 6501(b)(1) covers income tax returns; employment tax records follow the four-year rule in their own row. The seven-year period is a refund-claim deadline. It gives you longer to claim a deduction for a bad debt that became totally worthless, or a loss from a worthless security. The records behind that claim have to last that long too. A claim for a partly worthless bad debt has the regular deadline: three years from filing or two years from paying the tax, whichever is later.
Property records are often the longest-kept records a business has. The IRS says to keep them "until the period of limitations expires for the year in which you dispose of the property." If you receive property in a nontaxable exchange, keep the records of the old property together with the records of the new property. Keep both until the period of limitations expires for the year you dispose of the new property in a taxable disposition.
Rules from outside the IRS
Some records answer to agencies other than the IRS. The rows below come from the Department of Labor's wage-hour recordkeeping rules and the Department of Homeland Security's Form I-9 rule, both in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).
| Record | Keep at least | The clock starts | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Payroll records | 3 years | The date of the last entry | 29 CFR 516.5 |
| Time and earnings cards; wage rate tables; order, shipping, and billing records | 2 years | The date of the last entry. Wage rate tables: their last effective date | 29 CFR 516.6 |
| Form I-9 for each employee | 3 years after the date of hire or 1 year after employment ends, whichever is later | The hire date or the termination date | 8 CFR 274a.2(b)(2)(i)(A) |
State tax agencies set their own windows, too. California's Franchise Tax Board says: "Generally, we have four years from the date a return is filed to issue a deficiency assessment." The same article puts the period at six years when more than 25% of gross income is omitted from the return. There is no limit when no return was filed. A California business that discards records after three years can lose the support for a year the state can still assess.
What you can discard as of October 2026
Applied to a calendar-year Form 1040 or Form 1120 with none of the longer periods in play, the three-year rule works out like this:
| Tax year | When the return was filed | The three-year period ends |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | On time, by the April 2023 due date | April 2026 |
| 2022 | On extension, in October 2023 | October 2026 |
| 2023 | On time, by the April 2024 due date | April 2027 |
Before you shred records for a year whose three-year period has ended, check the clocks that run separately from that period:
- Payroll. Employment tax records run at least four years from the later of each period's due date or payment date. They can therefore outlast the income tax records for the same year.
- Employee files. A Form I-9 stays until three years after the hire date or one year after employment ends, whichever is later, so a current employee's form stays.
- Property you still own. Its purchase, improvement, and depreciation records stay until the limitations period ends for the year you dispose of it.
- Bad debts and worthless securities. Records behind a claim for a totally worthless bad debt or a worthless security stay for seven years. The period runs from the original due date of that year's return, not counting extensions.
- Information returns. Copies of the Forms 1099 you filed keep their own three- or four-year clock from the forms' due date. Which payments need a form at all is covered in the 1099-NEC threshold guide.
- State returns. Your state's window can be longer. California's Franchise Tax Board generally has four years from the date a return is filed.
- Reasons that are not about tax. The IRS adds that "your insurance company or creditors may require you to keep them longer than the IRS does."
Why seven years is not the rule for everything
"Keep everything for seven years" overshoots most records and undershoots some. Among the federal tax record-keeping periods, seven years is the period for one situation: a refund claim for a totally worthless bad debt or a worthless security. The general period for income tax records is three years. For some records there is no fixed end at all: property you still own, a year with no return, a fraudulent return, and, for foreign-owned companies, a year whose Form 5472 information was never furnished.
The regulation behind the income tax periods explains why. Section 1.6001-1(e) does not name a number of years. It ties retention to whether the records "may become material." The fixed income tax periods in the federal tax table follow the statute's deadlines for the IRS to assess tax and for you to claim a refund.
Partnerships and multi-member LLCs
A multi-member LLC taxed as a partnership has a separate audit window. Under section 6235(a)(1), the IRS generally cannot make an adjustment under the centralized partnership audit rules after three years. The three years run from the latest of three dates: the date the partnership return was filed, the return's due date, or the date the partnership filed an administrative adjustment request for that year. There is no limit for a false or fraudulent return filed with intent to evade tax, or when no return was filed. The period is six years for a substantial omission of income. The window can run longer once the IRS issues a notice of proposed partnership adjustment or reviews a modification request, or if the partnership agrees to extend it. Keep the partnership's records at least as long as that window. Because the period runs from the latest of those dates, a late Form 1065 keeps the year open longer. The longer window is on top of the Form 1065 late-filing penalty, which is charged per partner, per month.
Those rules do not apply to a partnership that elects out under section 6221(b). For that partnership, the IRS's time to assess each partner runs from that partner's own return. The election is limited to partnerships that must furnish 100 or fewer Schedules K-1 and whose partners are all one of these:
- Individuals
- C corporations
- Foreign entities that would be C corporations if domestic
- S corporations
- Estates of deceased partners
Scanned receipts: when the paper can go
Publication 583 allows original paper records to be destroyed only if two conditions are met. "The original hard copy books and records may be destroyed provided that the electronic storage system has been tested to establish that the hard copy books and records are being reproduced in compliance with IRS requirements for an electronic storage system and procedures are established to ensure continued compliance with all applicable rules and regulations." The detailed requirements are in Revenue Procedure 97-22, which the publication cites. If the system does not meet them, Publication 583 warns that "you may be subject to penalties for non-compliance, unless you continue to maintain your original hard copy books and records in a manner that allows you and the IRS to determine your correct tax."
Form I-9 has its own rule on format. The same regulation that sets the retention period allows several formats: paper originals, electronic records, or original paper scanned into an electronic format, among other options. An electronic system must meet the regulation's standards. Those standards include integrity controls, regular inspection, indexed retrieval, and the ability to print legible copies.
If a foreign person owns the LLC
A single-member LLC wholly owned by one foreign person is treated as a domestic corporation for the Form 5472 reporting rules in section 6038A. Its records of transactions with related parties must be kept "as long as they may be relevant or material to determining the correct tax treatment of any transaction between the reporting corporation and a related party, but in no case less than the applicable statute of limitations on assessment and collection" for the year the transaction affects. The Form 5472 instructions say a $25,000 penalty also applies to a failure to maintain those records, not only to a failure to file. What that recordkeeping looks like for a one-owner LLC is covered in when to hire a bookkeeper.
Missing information also keeps a year open. Under section 6501(c)(8), if information required under section 6038A is not furnished, the IRS's time to assess tax stays open. For the related return, event, or period, it does not expire before three years after the IRS receives the information. If the failure was due to reasonable cause and not willful neglect, that extension applies only to the items related to the failure.
FAQ
How long do I need to keep business receipts? For federal income tax, at least three years after you file the return they support, counting an early return as filed on its due date. Keep them longer if one of the named cases applies. The period is six years when the income left out is more than 25% of the gross income shown on the return. It is seven years for a claim for a totally worthless bad debt or a worthless security. There is no limit for a year with no return, or a fraudulent return.
Can I throw away my 2022 business tax records? Suppose a calendar-year Form 1040 or Form 1120 for 2022 was filed on time, by the April 2023 due date, and none of the longer periods applies. Then the general three-year period for that return ended in April 2026. A return filed on extension in October 2023 stays open until October 2026. A partnership or S corporation return for 2022 was due March 15, 2023. For a partnership under the centralized audit rules, the general window runs from the latest of that date, the filing date, or an administrative adjustment request. For an S corporation, or a partnership that elected out of those rules, the income and deductions passed through to the owners stay open as long as each owner's own return does. Keep the business records until each owner's 2022 period ends. If the S corporation owes tax itself, such as the built-in gains tax, also keep the records until the period for its own return ends. Check payroll records, Forms I-9, property you still own, bad debt claims, information return copies, and your state's period before discarding anything.
Can I keep scanned copies instead of paper receipts? Yes, if the electronic storage system meets the IRS requirements in Revenue Procedure 97-22. Publication 583 allows the paper originals to be destroyed only after the system has been tested and procedures are in place to keep it compliant.
How long should I keep copies of the 1099s I filed? At least three years from the due date of the returns, or four years for Form 1099-C or if federal withholding, including backup withholding, was imposed. You can keep the copies themselves or the ability to reconstruct the data, according to Publication 1099 (2026).
Does a multi-member LLC follow the same three-year rule? Yes, with a different starting point. Under the centralized partnership audit rules, the general IRS adjustment window in section 6235(a)(1) is three years. It runs from the latest of the filing date, the due date, or an administrative adjustment request for that year. The same exceptions apply for fraud, no return, and a substantial omission of income. Keep the partnership's records at least that long. A partnership that elects out under section 6221(b) is not covered by those rules; the IRS's time to assess each partner then runs from that partner's own return.
Sources
- How long should I keep records?, IRS, accessed 2026-10-10
- Publication 583 (Rev. December 2024), Starting a Business and Keeping Records, IRS, accessed 2026-10-10
- Publication 1099 (2026), General Instructions for Certain Information Returns, IRS, accessed 2026-10-10
- Publication 334 (2025), Tax Guide for Small Business, IRS, accessed 2026-10-10
- 26 U.S.C. 6501, Limitations on assessment and collection, Legal Information Institute, accessed 2026-10-10
- 26 U.S.C. 6511, Limitations on credit or refund, Legal Information Institute, accessed 2026-10-10
- 26 CFR 301.6511(d)-1, Overpayment of income tax on account of bad debts, worthless securities, etc., eCFR, accessed 2026-10-10
- 26 U.S.C. 6235, Period of limitations on making adjustments, Legal Information Institute, accessed 2026-10-10
- 26 U.S.C. 6221, Determination at partnership level, Legal Information Institute, accessed 2026-10-10
- 26 CFR 1.6001-1, Records, eCFR, accessed 2026-10-10
- 26 CFR 31.6001-1, Records in general, eCFR, accessed 2026-10-10
- 26 CFR 1.6038A-1, General requirements and definitions, eCFR, accessed 2026-10-10
- 26 CFR 1.6038A-3, Record maintenance, eCFR, accessed 2026-10-10
- Instructions for Form 5472, IRS, accessed 2026-10-10
- Revenue Procedure 97-22, Internal Revenue Bulletin 1997-13, IRS, accessed 2026-10-10
- 29 CFR 516.5, Records to be preserved 3 years, eCFR, accessed 2026-10-10
- 29 CFR 516.6, Records to be preserved 2 years, eCFR, accessed 2026-10-10
- 8 CFR 274a.2, Verification of identity and employment authorization, eCFR, accessed 2026-10-10
- Tax News, October 2022: statute of limitations, California Franchise Tax Board, accessed 2026-10-10
This guide is general information based on the sources listed above, not legal or tax advice. For decisions about your situation, talk to a licensed attorney, CPA, or enrolled agent.
