{
  "question_id": "Q-0004",
  "slug": "how-long-a-business-needs-to-keep-receipts-and-records",
  "display_title": "How long does a business need to keep receipts and records?",
  "format": "article-v2",
  "applies_to": {
    "countries": [
      "US"
    ],
    "frameworks": [],
    "tax_year": null,
    "platforms": []
  },
  "general_concept": false,
  "summary": "No single number applies: keep each record class until the latest end date among the rules reaching it, each counting from its own starting event. The IRS ties income tax records to their return: ordinarily three years after filing (a return filed early counts as filed on its due date), longer in listed cases; employment tax records, at least four years after the tax is due or paid, whichever is later. State, industry, grant and contract rules can run longer.",
  "body": "## Why is there no single retention period?\n\nThe IRS page \"How long should I keep records?\" says how long to keep a document depends on the action, expense or event it records. Other authorities add periods of their own for the same records: a state tax agency, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), an industry regulator, a federal awarding agency, a lender or an insurer. Each rule counts from its own starting event, so two three-year rules can end on different dates.\n\nOne period applied to everything sends payroll, asset and grant records out too early and keeps records nothing still requires.\n\n## What does the federal tax rule require, and when does its clock start?\n\nTreasury regulation section 1.6001-1(e) sets the base rule: the books and records it requires are retained so long as their contents may become material in the administration of any internal revenue law. The IRS records page turns that into a working rule: generally, keep the records that support an item of income, deduction or credit on a return until the period of limitations for that return runs out. The page defines that period as the time in which you can amend the return to claim a credit or refund, or the IRS can assess additional tax.\n\nThe rule reaches those records and the books that summarize them. IRS Publication 583 calls the books journals and ledgers, and says supporting documents include sales slips, paid bills, invoices, receipts, deposit slips and canceled checks. Which records must be kept in the first place, and how far back the IRS can reach into filed returns, are separate questions.\n\nThe clock starts with the return, not the receipt. The page's periods apply to income tax returns, count from when the return was filed, and treat a return filed before its due date as filed on the due date. A receipt dated in March usually supports a return filed the following year, so its period starts from that return. Counting from the date printed on each receipt ends every period early.\n\nTwo classes start from other events on the same IRS page:\n\n- **Property.** Records relating to property are generally kept until the period of limitations expires for the year in which you dispose of the property, since they are needed to figure depreciation, amortization or depletion and the gain or loss on disposal. If you received property in a nontaxable exchange, the old property's records are kept with the new property's until the period expires for the year you dispose of the new property.\n- **Employment taxes.** Employment tax records are kept for at least 4 years after the date the tax becomes due or is paid, whichever is later.\n\n## What extends, suspends or removes a period?\n\nStart by establishing the state of the tax position for the period the records cover. The IRS records page sets these periods for income tax records:\n\n| If this applies to the return | Keep the records |\n|---|---|\n| None of the last three rows applies | 3 years |\n| You file a claim for credit or refund after filing the return | 3 years from filing the original return or 2 years from paying the tax, whichever is later |\n| You file a claim for a loss from worthless securities or a bad debt deduction | 7 years |\n| You did not report income you should have, and it is more than 25% of the gross income shown on the return | 6 years |\n| You did not file a return | Indefinitely |\n| You filed a fraudulent return | Indefinitely |\n\nA return filed after its due date starts the count on the day it is filed.\n\nAn open examination can move the end date. The IRS page on audits describes extending the statute of limitations during an audit, which it says gives you more time to provide further documentation to support your position; the records for that return must then last until the extended date. Other authorities set holds of their own, including the grant and employment rules below:\n\n- California's Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA), in Publication 116, tells a taxpayer being audited to keep all records covering the audit period until the audit is complete, even beyond four years, and to keep records related to a dispute until it is resolved, or to an appeal or refund claim while it is pending.\n- New York's Department of Taxation and Finance, in bulletin TB-ST-770, says it may require records to be kept longer, such as when they are the subject of an audit, court case or other proceeding.\n- Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(e), which applies in federal civil cases, addresses electronically stored information that should have been preserved in the anticipation or conduct of litigation. When a dispute is far enough along to require preservation, and what a state court requires, are legal questions: hold the related records and ask the business's lawyer as soon as a suit is threatened.\n\nThe moment an audit notice, charge, claim or threatened lawsuit arrives, stop scheduled destruction and automatic deletion of the records it could touch, at once and alongside every other response; a record destroyed in the meantime cannot be brought back. A hold suspends disposal even where the ordinary period has run.\n\n## Which other rules set their own periods?\n\n### What if the business has employees?\n\nPayroll and personnel records are a separate class with their own rules and start events. The EEOC's regulation at 29 CFR 1602.14, part of its recordkeeping rules under title VII, the ADA, GINA and the PWFA, requires an employer those laws cover to preserve any personnel or employment record it makes or keeps, including requests for reasonable accommodation, applications and records of hiring, promotion, demotion, transfer, layoff or termination, pay and selection for training, for one year from the date the record was made or the personnel action taken, whichever is later. Whether those laws cover your business is set by the laws themselves. After an involuntary termination, that employee's personnel records are kept for one year from the termination date. Where a charge of discrimination has been filed, or the EEOC or the Attorney General has brought an action, against the employer under title VII, the ADA or GINA, the employer keeps all relevant personnel records until final disposition: the end of the period in which the aggrieved person may sue in a U.S. District Court or, if a suit is brought, the date it ends. Payroll retention in detail belongs to the question on employer payroll records.\n\n### What if the business files in more than one state?\n\nStates set their own rules; the two sales tax rules below differ in length, and only New York's states its start event. Each example holds only for its own state:\n\n- **New York.** Bulletin TB-ST-770 requires sales tax vendors to keep all records for a minimum of three years from the due date of the return they relate to, or the date that return is filed, if later.\n- **California.** CDTFA's Publication 116, its guide to sales and use tax records, tells taxpayers to keep required records for at least four years unless the agency gives specific, written authorization to destroy them sooner. That page does not state the event the four years run from; it refers to CDTFA Regulation 1698, Records, which a California seller should read, or ask CDTFA about, before scheduling any sales record for destruction. Separately, Corporations Code section 17701.13 requires each limited liability company it governs to keep at its designated office, in writing or in a form convertible into clearly legible tangible form, copies of its income tax or information returns and reports, and of its financial statements, for the six most recent fiscal years, and its internal-affairs books and records for at least the current and past four fiscal years.\n\nFor a business in several states, each state's tax rule reaches the records behind that state's returns, and a state's entity rule, such as California's for its LLCs, reaches the records it lists, federal returns included, so each is a separate candidate and the latest date governs.\n\n### What if a license or industry regulator applies?\n\nAn industry or licensing rule can count from an event unrelated to any document's date. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's rule at 49 CFR 391.51 requires each motor carrier to keep a qualification file for each driver it employs, retained for as long as the driver is employed and for three years after. The same section lets listed items, including the annual driver record inquiry results, their review notes and medical examiner's certificates, be removed three years after the date of execution. Check each license, permit and registration you hold for its agency's recordkeeping rule.\n\n### What if a grant, contract, lender or insurer is involved?\n\nThe agreement's own term is a governing candidate. If your award's terms and conditions apply 2 CFR 200.334 (read them to find out), it requires the recipient and subrecipient to retain all federal award records, including financial records, supporting documentation and statistical records, for three years from submitting the final financial report or, for awards renewed quarterly or annually, the quarterly or annual financial report. It lets federal agencies and pass-through entities impose no other retention requirement beyond its listed exceptions, which include these:\n\n| When this applies | The records are kept |\n|---|---|\n| Litigation, a claim or an audit involving the records starts before the three years end | Until all litigation, claims and audit findings are resolved and final action is taken |\n| The federal agency, pass-through entity, cognizant or oversight agency for audit, or cognizant agency for indirect costs notifies you in writing to extend | For the extended period |\n| The records cover property or equipment acquired with federal funds | Three years after final disposition |\n| The records are transferred to or maintained by the federal agency | The three-year requirement does not apply |\n\nThe section sets separate periods for program income and indirect-cost rate records; read 2 CFR 200.334(e) and (f) if your award involves them. Read your award's terms and conditions for the retention rule they apply. For loans, leases, insurance policies and customer or government contracts, read each agreement's records clause and enter its term, and the event it runs from, in the schedule. The IRS records page notes that an insurance company or creditors may require records to be kept longer than the IRS does.\n\n### How do you find which of these reach you?\n\nMake these lists, then look up each authority's or agreement's period, start event and extensions in its own text:\n\n- Every tax return and registration you file, federal and state, for income, franchise, sales and payroll taxes\n- Every state where the business is formed or registered\n- Every license, permit and industry registration, with the agency that issued it\n- Everyone you employ, and the states where they work\n- Every grant, government contract, loan, lease, insurance policy and customer contract with a records clause\n\n## How do you choose the governing period when several rules reach one record?\n\nEach statute, regulation and agency rule above sets its own period, and none makes its period give way to another's. Records retention guidelines published by the Illinois CPA Society say a company's files should generally be kept until all legal and regulatory requirements are met, so a record that several rules reach is kept until the latest of their end dates. The IRS records page tells you, from the tax side, not to discard records no longer needed for tax purposes until you check whether you have to keep them longer for other purposes. Do not assume the federal tax period is the longest: a driver file, federal award records, kept three years from the final financial report, and a lender's clause can each end later.\n\n## Which records should be kept beyond every rule?\n\nAt the governing date, disposal is right only if retention was the only reason for keeping the record. Keep it while it still serves an operational or legal purpose:\n\n- **Filed returns.** The IRS records page says to keep copies of filed tax returns, which help in preparing future returns and making computations for an amended return.\n- **Anything still in force.** Records of current contracts, leases, loans, warranties and insurance policies are needed while those continue.\n\n## What must a record remain while it is kept?\n\nRetention is a storage duty, not only a calendar date. Treasury regulation section 1.6001-1(e) requires books and records to be kept at all times available for inspection by authorized IRS officers or employees. For electronic records, IRS Publication 583 says every requirement for paper books and records also applies to electronic storage systems: the system must index, store, preserve, retrieve and reproduce the records in legible format and give a complete and accurate record accessible to the IRS, and where it replaces paper, it must be maintained for as long as it is material to the administration of tax law.\n\nA record that cannot be read or found fails when it is asked for. Keep paper, including faded receipts, legible; keep the software or export format that opens each electronic file; export records before closing any account or system that holds them; and test a retrieval from each class once a year. Whether a scan may replace a paper original, and how to make records audit-ready, are separate questions.\n\n## What happens when a retention period ends?\n\nWork through these steps in order for each batch due for destruction:\n\n1. Confirm the end date has passed under every rule on the record's schedule row, including any extension.\n2. Confirm nothing holds the record: no open or expected audit, extended statute, refund claim, appeal, charge, claim or lawsuit touching it.\n3. Confirm it is no longer needed for an operational or legal purpose.\n4. Destroy it so it cannot be read or reconstructed, including every electronic copy and backup you control.\n5. Record what was destroyed, the period it covered, the date and the schedule row.\n\nSome records carrying personal information have disposal rules of their own. The Federal Trade Commission's guide to its Disposal Rule says any business or individual who uses a consumer report for a business purpose is subject to the rule, which requires proper disposal of information in consumer reports and records to protect against unauthorized access to or use of it. Credit reports and credit scores are consumer reports, and so are reports with information on employment background, check writing history, insurance claims, residential or tenant history or medical history. The guide describes burning, pulverizing or shredding papers, and destroying or erasing electronic files or media, so the information cannot be read or reconstructed. The rule itself reaches consumer reports and information derived from them; for other records with a consumer's personal or financial information, the FTC encourages similar measures. California Civil Code section 1798.81 requires a business to take all reasonable steps to dispose, or arrange for the disposal, of customer records within its custody or control containing personal information, when the records are no longer to be retained, by shredding, erasing or otherwise modifying the personal information to make it unreadable or undecipherable through any means. That statute is California's alone; check the law of each state whose customers' or employees' records you hold.\n\n## How do you turn the determinations into a retention schedule?\n\nBuild the schedule from what the business actually holds, not only its purchase receipts. Each row names a record class, the rules that can reach it, the event each counts from, what extends, suspends or removes it, and its destruction date; the IRS entries come from the IRS records page:\n\n| Record class | Rules that can reach it | Clock starts | Extends, suspends or removes it | Destruction date (latest end date; left blank while a hold or continuing need applies) |\n|---|---|---|---|---|\n| Books and supporting documents, such as sales slips, paid bills, invoices, receipts, deposit slips and canceled checks | IRS: 3 years; each state you file in, such as New York's rule for sales tax vendors (3 years) or CDTFA's for sales and use tax records (at least 4 years); a state's income or franchise tax rule is a separate candidate to look up | IRS: filing of the return supported (due date if filed early). New York: return due date or filing date, if later. CDTFA: take from Regulation 1698 before scheduling | The rows of the IRS table above; audit, extended statute, dispute, appeal | Per tax year |\n| Asset purchase, improvement and depreciation records | IRS property rule; 2 CFR 200.334 for federal-award equipment (3 years) | IRS: the return for the year of disposal. Award equipment: final disposition | Nontaxable exchange; the IRS extensions; award litigation, claim or audit | Per asset |\n| Employment tax records | IRS: at least 4 years; payroll rules in the payroll records question | The tax's due date or payment date, whichever is later | Audit or other hold | Per return period |\n| Hiring, personnel and termination records | EEOC, 29 CFR 1602.14 (employers covered by title VII, the ADA, GINA or the PWFA): 1 year | The record or personnel action, whichever is later; the date of an involuntary termination | Discrimination charge or action: until final disposition | Per record or employee |\n| Driver qualification files | FMCSA, 49 CFR 391.51: 3 years | End of the driver's employment | Listed items removable 3 years after execution | Per driver |\n| Federal award records | 2 CFR 200.334: 3 years; your award terms | Submission of the final financial report, or the quarterly or annual report on renewed awards | The exceptions in the grant table above | Per award |\n| California LLC returns, financial statements and internal-affairs records | Corporations Code section 17701.13 | Rolling: six most recent fiscal years; internal affairs, current and past four | None stated | Per fiscal year |\n| Loans, leases, insurance policies, contracts | The agreement's records clause | As the agreement states | As the agreement states; open claims | Per agreement |\n| Customer exemption and resale certificates | Their own rule, in the exemption documentation question | As that rule states | Audit or other hold | As that rule states |\n| Copies of filed tax returns | IRS: keep copies | No end set | Not applicable | None set |\n\nThen run the schedule in this order:\n\n1. Inventory every class of record you hold, wherever it lives: paper files, the accounting system, bank and card portals, payroll and point-of-sale systems, email and shared drives.\n2. Complete a row for each class from the rules you identified.\n3. For each tax year, quarter, award, asset or employee, compute every rule's end date and enter the latest in the destruction-date column.\n4. Flag holds and records still needed, so disposal skips them.\n5. Re-check the schedule whenever you add a state, an employee, a license, a grant, a loan, a contract or a new kind of record.\n\n## How does one record class work through the whole determination?\n\nTake the purchase invoice for a delivery van bought on 15 May 2026 and sold on 20 August 2031, paid for partly by a federal award whose terms apply 2 CFR 200.334 and partly by a bank loan. The determination runs in five steps:\n\n1. **Rules.** The IRS property rule, the base rule in 2 CFR 200.334 (all federal award records, three years from the final financial report), the equipment exception in 2 CFR 200.334, the loan agreement's records clause and each state rule for returns that report the van all reach it.\n2. **Start events.** The IRS period runs from the return for 2031, the year of disposal; if that return is filed after its due date, on 14 October 2032, the ordinary three years end on 14 October 2035. The award's final financial report was submitted on 30 September 2027, so the base rule ends on 30 September 2030. The equipment exception runs three years from final disposition, to 20 August 2034. The loan clause runs as it states.\n3. **Extensions.** Omitted income on the 2031 return of more than 25% of the gross income shown would make the IRS period six years, to 14 October 2038; no return would mean it never ends. An extended statute in an IRS audit moves the date to the extension; an award audit or claim started before 20 August 2034 holds the records until it is resolved and final action is taken.\n4. **Governing period.** With no extension, the invoice is kept until 14 October 2035, unless the loan clause or a state rule runs later. A final financial report submitted after 14 October 2032 would make the base rule run later than 14 October 2035.\n5. **Still needed.** If an accident claim or warranty dispute over the van is still open then, the invoice stays until it ends.\n\nCounting three years from the invoice date would have ended on 15 May 2029, more than six years before the governing date.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "REF::1",
      "url": "https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/how-long-should-i-keep-records",
      "title": "How long should I keep records?",
      "publisher": "Internal Revenue Service",
      "published": "Page Last Reviewed or Updated: 30-Jun-2026",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-09-30T12:00:25+00:00",
      "sha256": "6cd8303935a4c3de6d9ff17df296c27463061de4102488207a80dd9b3715d1d1",
      "supports": [
        "C1",
        "C3",
        "C4",
        "C5",
        "C6",
        "C7",
        "C8",
        "C9",
        "C10",
        "C11",
        "C12",
        "C13",
        "C14",
        "C15",
        "C16",
        "C17",
        "C52",
        "C53",
        "C54"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "REF::2",
      "url": "https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2025-title26-vol15/xml/CFR-2025-title26-vol15-sec1-6001-1.xml",
      "title": "26 CFR 1.6001-1, Records",
      "publisher": "Internal Revenue Service, Department of the Treasury (Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Government Publishing Office)",
      "published": "2025 annual edition, title 26, volume 15",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-09-30T12:00:25+00:00",
      "sha256": "32d9a81c9e051556355f7536d715e715cadbe03be12ac195cc3ab295bf09ad75",
      "supports": [
        "C2",
        "C55",
        "C67"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "REF::3",
      "url": "https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/irs-audits",
      "title": "IRS audits",
      "publisher": "Internal Revenue Service",
      "published": "Page Last Reviewed or Updated: 17-Feb-2026",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-09-30T12:00:25+00:00",
      "sha256": "06af1bd0ca7b09ecf4eaf0c36a9c7647955d65f7f89c62b71ebe88bf026f0c77",
      "supports": [
        "C18"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "REF::4",
      "url": "https://www.cdtfa.ca.gov/formspubs/pub116/retaining-records.htm",
      "title": "Publication 116, Sales and Use Tax Records: Retaining Records",
      "publisher": "California Department of Tax and Fee Administration",
      "published": "Revision September 2018",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-09-30T12:00:25+00:00",
      "sha256": "604eda5bfe2be6cee3d8f7e4618cb7db28b3a9d91f3d3c74b6cb86715b46e5eb",
      "supports": [
        "C19",
        "C20",
        "C21",
        "C32",
        "C70",
        "C71"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "REF::5",
      "url": "https://www.tax.ny.gov/pubs_and_bulls/tg_bulletins/st/record-keeping_requirements_for_sales_tax_vendors.htm",
      "title": "Recordkeeping Requirements for Sales Tax Vendors (TB-ST-770)",
      "publisher": "New York State Department of Taxation and Finance",
      "published": "updated March 12, 2026",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-09-30T12:00:25+00:00",
      "sha256": "4c18325346b73b6c68939da153584ca105adbef52dd39abff93dbab36e95e85e",
      "supports": [
        "C22",
        "C29",
        "C30"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "REF::6",
      "url": "https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcp/rule_37",
      "title": "Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 37. Failure to Make Disclosures or to Cooperate in Discovery; Sanctions",
      "publisher": "Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School",
      "published": "undated",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-09-30T12:00:25+00:00",
      "sha256": "ab33cb0ba8d8affc2dd126ed67a6950f46b5af11d3662ed737282f754a0e428a",
      "supports": [
        "C23",
        "C75"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "REF::7",
      "url": "https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2025-title29-vol4/xml/CFR-2025-title29-vol4-sec1602-14.xml",
      "title": "29 CFR 1602.14, Preservation of records made or kept",
      "publisher": "U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Government Publishing Office)",
      "published": "2025 annual edition, title 29, volume 4",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-09-30T12:00:25+00:00",
      "sha256": "29cc6e853e1b5a827f7278f201fe66c0e4660ce1efe6d278ef59caed67a17c31",
      "supports": [
        "C24",
        "C25",
        "C26",
        "C27",
        "C28",
        "C74"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "REF::8",
      "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CORP&sectionNum=17701.13",
      "title": "Corporations Code section 17701.13",
      "publisher": "California Legislature (California Legislative Information)",
      "published": "amended by Stats. 2022, Ch. 617, Sec. 118 (SB 1202), effective January 1, 2023",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-09-30T12:00:25+00:00",
      "sha256": "12b53133c30f317ddc2b291e03f4f250a31b800fa7d5e6b8d88ee00689f672f6",
      "supports": [
        "C33",
        "C34",
        "C35",
        "C36"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "REF::9",
      "url": "https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2025-title49-vol5/xml/CFR-2025-title49-vol5-sec391-51.xml",
      "title": "49 CFR 391.51, General requirements for driver qualification files",
      "publisher": "Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Government Publishing Office)",
      "published": "2025 annual edition, title 49, volume 5",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-09-30T12:00:26+00:00",
      "sha256": "fdd7b9aef737035ade65c1c86864e63b91169b02e66f4cb616ba3274a1448c31",
      "supports": [
        "C37",
        "C38",
        "C39"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "REF::10",
      "url": "https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2025-title2-vol1/xml/CFR-2025-title2-vol1-sec200-334.xml",
      "title": "2 CFR 200.334, Record retention requirements",
      "publisher": "Office of Management and Budget (Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Government Publishing Office)",
      "published": "2025 annual edition (1-1-25 edition), title 2, volume 1",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-09-30T12:00:26+00:00",
      "sha256": "cd61025c4379ebadb32819d0a6bd6217bc021708f91759c8e0cd09280d82f5c6",
      "supports": [
        "C40",
        "C41",
        "C42",
        "C43",
        "C44",
        "C45",
        "C46",
        "C47",
        "C48",
        "C72"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "REF::11",
      "url": "https://www.irs.gov/publications/p583",
      "title": "Publication 583, Starting a Business and Keeping Records",
      "publisher": "Internal Revenue Service",
      "published": "December 2024 revision",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-09-30T12:00:26+00:00",
      "sha256": "6c528cf2b29ffcf75ca12ceedd4a732ec308177f512f42e9cbbded392b3b3a2d",
      "supports": [
        "C56",
        "C57",
        "C58",
        "C59",
        "C68",
        "C69"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "REF::12",
      "url": "https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/disposing-consumer-report-information-rule-tells-how",
      "title": "Disposing of Consumer Report Information? Rule Tells How",
      "publisher": "Federal Trade Commission",
      "published": "June 2005",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-09-30T12:00:25+00:00",
      "sha256": "34d268a501d9d066bc2ef55ce5ece47fea4f096e4ae3bc9dcad9c0d174b2f580",
      "supports": [
        "C60",
        "C61",
        "C62",
        "C63",
        "C64",
        "C65",
        "C73"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "REF::13",
      "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV&sectionNum=1798.81",
      "title": "Civil Code section 1798.81",
      "publisher": "California Legislature (California Legislative Information)",
      "published": "amended by Stats. 2009, Ch. 134, Sec. 2 (AB 1094), effective January 1, 2010",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-09-30T12:00:26+00:00",
      "sha256": "816df547bce46a7403bf91eaa99e757d4ef8fdb89d22c0859bb4b5d932098243",
      "supports": [
        "C66"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "REF::14",
      "url": "https://www.icpas.org/docs/default-source/advocacy-docs/practice-and-procedures/best-practices-compilation/records-retention-guidelines.pdf?sfvrsn=643000b6_1",
      "title": "Records Retention Guidelines",
      "publisher": "Illinois CPA Society",
      "published": "undated",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-01T02:14:01+00:00",
      "sha256": "7a360289bac0ad2b2f73d413a55606ea05758c4419b1c6c177b02fbaa4c863f1",
      "supports": [
        "C76"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "related": [
    {
      "question_id": "Q-0003",
      "slug": "whether-to-keep-paper-receipts-after-scanning-them",
      "display_title": "Do I need to keep paper receipts after scanning them?"
    },
    {
      "question_id": "CG-P1B-012",
      "slug": "what-records-a-business-must-keep-for-tax-and-compliance",
      "display_title": "What records is a business required to keep for tax and compliance purposes?"
    },
    {
      "question_id": "CG-P1B-FULL-031",
      "slug": "how-far-back-the-irs-can-reach-and-how-long-to-keep-records",
      "display_title": "How far back does the tax authority retain and reach into tax records and filed returns, and what does that lookback window imply for how long a business keeps its own records?"
    },
    {
      "question_id": "CG-MCE-051",
      "slug": "what-payroll-records-does-an-employer-have-to-keep-and-for-how-long",
      "display_title": "What payroll records does an employer have to keep, and for how long?"
    },
    {
      "question_id": "CG-MCE-044",
      "slug": "what-do-i-need-on-file-from-customers-i-didn-t-charge-sales-tax-to-and-how-long",
      "display_title": "What do I need on file from customers I didn't charge sales tax to, and how long do I have to keep it?"
    },
    {
      "question_id": "Q-0024",
      "slug": "how-to-make-your-business-records-audit-ready",
      "display_title": "How do I make my business records audit-ready?"
    }
  ],
  "review_class": "consequential",
  "review_class_trigger": "pre_publication_professional_review_required",
  "provenance": {
    "author_model": "claude-opus-5-5",
    "reviewer_model": "claude-opus-5-5",
    "review_verdict": "ACCEPT",
    "review_source": "closure",
    "review_verdict_on_sha256": "012ae133b6239c6b513ae6d22028212072684042746fafdca3835db753b428a0",
    "editorial_disposition": "ACCEPT",
    "corrections": 1,
    "approved_by": null,
    "approved_at": null,
    "article_sha256": "012ae133b6239c6b513ae6d22028212072684042746fafdca3835db753b428a0",
    "source_map_sha256": "2e3f0decb0de8dbd9dc57e8c1ef6bf9ccfc46c04fab3595241814006decc7cf6",
    "transform_sha256": "f14ec300d2765f4091712a33f3d36e724f5804a6924335b1d40be25a5c2ebc9d"
  },
  "offer": "ask",
  "offer_id": null,
  "sample_target_id": null,
  "datePublished": "2026-10-01T20:06:59Z",
  "reviewed_at": "2026-10-01T20:06:59Z",
  "content_sha": "95c3edfca87508f72ca5dc7aac4180ae31a4bd1d7c3e49a0078214006fbe5d65",
  "release": "2.14.0",
  "slug_provenance": "minted at first publication",
  "question_text": "How long does a business need to keep receipts and records?",
  "jsonld_types": [
    "Article"
  ],
  "related_question_ids": [
    "Q-0003",
    "CG-P1B-012",
    "CG-P1B-FULL-031",
    "CG-MCE-051",
    "CG-MCE-044",
    "Q-0024"
  ],
  "aliases": [],
  "alias_provenance": [],
  "notice": "This guide is general information, not tax or legal advice. Confirm with a qualified professional before acting."
}