{
  "question_id": "CG-P1B-FULL-005",
  "slug": "how-long-a-tax-preparer-or-accounting-firm-must-keep-client-records",
  "display_title": "How long must a tax preparer, accountant, or bookkeeping firm keep client records and copies of client returns?",
  "format": "article-v2",
  "applies_to": {
    "countries": [
      "US"
    ],
    "frameworks": [],
    "tax_year": null,
    "platforms": []
  },
  "general_concept": false,
  "summary": "Treasury regulations make a signing preparer keep a copy or list of each return for 3 years after the close of the July-to-June return period when it was presented for signature, or of the later period in which it falls due with extensions. AICPA auditing standards set at least 5 years from report release; California and New York set 7-year minimums for audit documentation or work papers. Client-owned records go back on request; board investigations and litigation suspend destruction.",
  "body": "## Whose obligation is this, and which rules reach your firm?\n\nThese duties are your firm's own, owed as a preparer and as a licensed or credentialed practice. They are not the client's business-record rules, and handing papers back does not discharge them. The Treasury regulation on return copies treats a firm that employs a signing preparer as the sole signing tax return preparer.\n\nWhich rules apply depends on what the firm does and who practices in it:\n\n| If your firm | These rules reach it |\n|---|---|\n| Signs, or employs people who sign, federal returns for compensation | 26 CFR 1.6107-1 |\n| Prepares or helps prepare returns, or provides auxiliary services to a preparer | The section 7216 confidentiality regulations (who they cover is defined in 26 CFR 301.7216-1, not opened here) |\n| Is in the business of completing income tax returns, federal or state | The FTC Safeguards Rule |\n| Determines head of household status or the child tax, American opportunity or earned income credits | 26 CFR 1.6695-2 |\n| E-files as an electronic return originator using Form 8879 | The IRS instructions on Form 8879 |\n| Includes attorneys, CPAs, enrolled agents or other practitioners listed in 31 CFR 10.3 | Treasury Circular 230 |\n| Holds a state accountancy license or practices in a state under its rules | That state board's rules |\n| Includes AICPA members | The AICPA Code |\n| Performs audits under generally accepted auditing standards, whether or not an AICPA member | AU-C 230; state boards also apply professional standards (California section 5097, New York section 29.10) |\n\nNone of these rules says what reaches a bookkeeping firm that prepares no returns and holds no license, credential or membership. Such a firm should not assume it is outside every rule: check whether section 7216, the Safeguards Rule or state law reaches it, and set its periods in its engagement agreements.\n\n## Which classes of record does a client file hold, and who owns each?\n\nFor AICPA members, the Code's Records Requests interpretation (1.400.200) sorts a file into four classes, defined solely for that interpretation:\n\n| Class | What it covers | Owner and hand-back status |\n|---|---|---|\n| Client-provided records | Records belonging to the client that it, or someone for it, gave you | The client's |\n| Member-prepared records | Records you were not engaged to prepare that the client's books lack | The Code says when they are owed, not who owns them: once the related work product is issued, though members may withhold them for that product's unpaid fees. California treats the information as client records, so its licensees may not (regulation 68) |\n| Work products | Deliverables set by the engagement terms, such as tax returns | The Code says when they must be made available (below), not who owns them; California's section 5037 excludes reports submitted to the client from the licensee's property |\n| Working papers | All other items prepared solely for the engagement | Your firm's property for AICPA members and, in California, absent an express agreement to the contrary; audit documentation is the auditor's (AU-C 230) |\n\nNon-members should classify by their board's rules and, if Circular 230 reaches them, its definition of records of the client (below).\n\nRecords you keep to meet your own duties, such as the return list, due-diligence files and signed Forms 8879, get their own rows in the schedule below. File each class so it can be told apart.\n\n## What must you keep about each return you prepared, and can a list replace copies?\n\nTreasury regulation 1.6107-1 requires the signing preparer to keep both of these, available for inspection on the Commissioner's request:\n\n- A completed copy of each return or claim for refund, or a list, card file or other record of the taxpayer's name, taxpayer identification number and taxable year and the type of return\n- A record, for each return, of the individual preparer required to sign it\n\nA list meets this rule only, not the due-diligence, e-file or state-board rules below. Regulation 1.6107-2 lets the IRS prescribe the form and manner of keeping the copy or record.\n\nThe clock runs from the end of a return period, not from filing. The regulation counts 3 years from the close of the return period in which the return was presented for signature or, if it becomes due (with extensions) in a later return period, from the close of that later period. It takes the return period from Internal Revenue Code section 6060(c): \"the 12-month period beginning on July 1 of each year\". A return presented on March 10, 2026 and due April 15, 2026 falls in the period ending June 30, 2026, so its copy or list is kept until June 30, 2029. One presented in June 2026 but due, with extension, on October 15, 2026 is kept until June 30, 2030.\n\nIf your firm is the electronic return originator for an e-filed individual return, the IRS instructions on Form 8879 say to retain the form for 3 years from the return due date or IRS received date, whichever is later, and allow electronic retention under the recordkeeping guidelines in Rev. Proc. 97-22.\n\n## Which engagements and return positions carry extra records?\n\n### What does the due-diligence regulation add?\n\nTreasury regulation 1.6695-2 applies when a preparer determines eligibility to file as head of household, or eligibility for or the amount of the child tax credit or additional child tax credit, the American opportunity tax credit or the earned income credit. It requires the preparer to keep:\n\n- A copy of the completed Form 8867 (or successor form)\n- A copy of each completed credit worksheet, or its own record of the computation\n- A record of how and when the information was obtained, who furnished it and a copy of any taxpayer document relied on\n\nIt requires them for three years from the latest of these dates, as applicable:\n\n- The return's due date, determined without regard to extensions\n- For a signing preparer who e-files, the filing date\n- For a signing preparer who does not e-file, the date the return was presented for signature\n- For a nonsigning preparer, the date it submitted its portion to the signing preparer\n\nThey may be kept on paper or electronically, but only in the manner prescribed in applicable regulations, revenue rulings, revenue procedures or other IRS guidance.\n\n### What does an audit add?\n\nAU-C section 230 of the AICPA's auditing standards bars deleting or discarding audit documentation, once the audit file is assembled, before the end of the retention period, which \"should not be shorter than five years from the report release date\", the date the auditor grants the entity permission to use the report. Statutes, regulations or firm policy may set a longer period.\n\n## What do state boards add, and what if clients are in several states?\n\nTwo states show how far board rules go:\n\n- **California.** Business and Professions Code section 5097 requires audit documentation to be kept for the longer of seven years and a period sufficient to satisfy professional standards and applicable law, under a written retention and destruction policy. Board regulation 68.3 measures that period from the date of issuance of the report and requires accessible form; regulation 68.5 requires the policy to include procedures for backup copies of electronic documentation and for approving destruction. Regulation 68.1 counts tax engagements' working papers and sets no number of years for them: safe custody, and retention for a period sufficient to meet the practice's needs and satisfy professional standards and legal requirements.\n- **New York.** Section 29.10 of the Rules of the Board of Regents requires work papers to be kept at least seven years after the date of issuance of the work product, longer where law requires, under a formal written policy identifying the process and authorization requirements for destroying them. It covers the practice of public accountancy as defined in Education Law section 7401, which lists tax among the services involving a licensed accountant's professional skills, so a New York licensee should not assume tax work papers fall outside the seven years.\n\nNo professional standard opened here sets a period for review, compilation, tax or bookkeeping working papers; outside New York, check your board's rule and record your period in a written policy.\n\nThe AICPA Code tells members to follow the state boards whose rules apply to them and treats failing a board's more restrictive rules on returning records as a violation; that provision covers returning records only. Boards can reach firms based elsewhere: California's regulations include registration forms for out-of-state accounting firms. Whether a board reaches a particular engagement depends on that state's law, so ask each board. A workable method is to list every state that licenses the firm or its practitioners and every state where you serve clients, then apply the longest period and strictest hand-back rule to each record class.\n\n## What must go back to a client who asks, and what may you withhold?\n\nCircular 230 section 10.28 requires a practitioner, at a client's request, to \"promptly return any and all records of the client that are necessary for the client to comply with his or her Federal tax obligations\", and allows keeping copies. A fee dispute generally does not relieve that duty. Where state law allows keeping records in a fee dispute, only records that must be attached to the client's return need go back, but the client must get reasonable access to review and copy the rest it needs. Records of the client include documents that preexisted the engagement, material from the client or a third party other than your staff, and a document from a prior engagement the client needs for current federal obligations; they exclude a document you prepared and are withholding pending payment for it.\n\nFor AICPA members, the Records Requests interpretation sets these rules:\n\n| Class | Must you make it available? | Grounds for withholding |\n|---|---|---|\n| Client-provided records | Yes, on the first request | None; a reasonable retrieval, copying and shipping fee may be charged, but nonpayment is no ground |\n| Member-prepared records for a completed, issued work product | Yes | Fees due for that work product |\n| Work products | Yes | Fees due for that product; it is incomplete; professional standards require it; threatened or outstanding litigation about the engagement or your work |\n| Working papers | No | Not applicable, though statutes, regulations and contracts may require more |\n\nIt accepts any usable and accessible format, says a state lien law does not relieve the member, lets member and client agree other terms for member-prepared records and work products, and treats noncompliance as a violation of its Acts Discreditable Rule.\n\nNew York's section 29.10 treats refusing a client's request for any of these as unprofessional conduct: copies of tax returns; copies of reports or other documents previously issued to or for the client; records belonging to or obtained for the client that the accountant removed from its premises or received for its account, on which no lien is allowed; and working-paper information that would ordinarily be part of the client's books and is not otherwise available to it, including paid-for items prepared for the client. It attaches no payment condition to copies of tax returns or previously issued reports. California's regulation 68 bars keeping client records after the client demands them, says unpaid fees do not justify keeping them, and treats the information on working papers that would ordinarily be part of the client's books, and is not otherwise available to it, as the client's records; section 5037(b) has you furnish a copy on request.\n\n## What should you do when an engagement ends in dispute or the client moves to another firm?\n\nTake these steps in order:\n\n1. Confirm the request as described below. Until it is confirmed, release records only to the client in person or by tracked mail or courier to a postal address chosen as that subsection sets out; after confirmation, send them only to the destination confirmed.\n2. Before sending return information to a new firm, get a client consent that meets every requirement of 26 CFR 301.7216-3. Except as 26 CFR 301.7216-2(c) provides, a preparer needs that consent to give return information to another preparer for its substantive determinations; treat a new firm's work as such, as no rule opened here settles whether it is. If the client will not consent, release the records to the client under step 4.\n3. Sort each requested item into its class.\n4. Release client-provided records as soon as practicable; the AICPA Code and California bar withholding them for unpaid fees. Circular 230 requires prompt return, and the AICPA Code sets 45 days after the request as the latest date absent extenuating circumstances.\n5. Check every board that reaches the engagement, including the New York and California rules above, before withholding anything else.\n6. Withhold other items only on a ground the governing rule allows, and keep a copy of everything released.\n7. If litigation or a complaint is threatened, put the whole file on hold as described below.\n\n### How do you confirm a records request?\n\nNo rule opened here sets how to confirm a records request; these checks are a precaution, not a legal requirement. Call the client on a phone number you already held before the request arrived and that did not reach you by email, message or portal, such as one the client gave you in person, or confirm with the client in person. A number you have reached the client on before still does not count if it first reached you that way. Confirm any instruction to send files to another firm or a new address in the same call, and send only to the destination confirmed there. Nothing given in or arranged through the request or any message counts, because whoever controls that mailbox can plant or answer it. Where staffing allows, someone other than the person who received the request makes the call; a sole practitioner makes it personally, through the same routes.\n\nStart confirming the day the request arrives, and record each attempt and its date. Do not hold records waiting for confirmation: if the client has not confirmed by the time the records are ready, release them to the client in person or by tracked mail or courier to a postal address you held before the request arrived and that did not reach you by email, message or portal.\n\nIf the client cannot come in and you hold no postal address that meets that test, for example because a remote client gave every contact detail on an emailed or portal intake form, take these steps in order:\n\n1. Take the postal address from the most recent return you prepared for the client, or engagement letter it signed, dated before the request arrived. Someone who took over the client's mailbox or portal account after that date cannot have put it there. Do not use an address given later by email, message or portal.\n2. If the client has still not confirmed when the records are ready, send them by tracked mail or courier to that address and nowhere else; the client can pass them on to another firm.\n3. Record the request date, the document the address came from, the dispatch date and the tracking number.\n\n## How may records be kept, and what safeguarding applies while you hold them?\n\nRules that address form accept electronic records, with conditions. New York requires electronic work papers to stay accessible, read-only, for the whole retention period and protected against unauthorized modification. AU-C section 230 allows audit documentation on paper or electronic media and points to firm procedures that maintain its integrity, accessibility and retrievability, for example when paper is scanned.\n\nConfidentiality lasts as long as you hold the file. Under 26 CFR 301.7216-3, unless section 7216 or 26 CFR 301.7216-2 specifically authorizes a disclosure or use, a preparer needs the taxpayer's written consent first. Section 301.7216-2 does let you keep return information, including copies of returns, on paper or electronically, and use it for other returns of the same taxpayer or an IRS examination or later tax litigation. AU-C section 230 requires auditors to adopt reasonable procedures to keep client information confidential.\n\nThe FTC's Safeguards Rule treats an accountant or tax preparation service in the business of completing income tax returns as a financial institution. It covers customer information about individuals who become clients for tax preparation, in paper, electronic or other form, maintained by you or on your behalf. It requires secure disposal of that information, in any format, no later than two years after it was last used to serve the customer, unless it is necessary for business operations or other legitimate business purposes, is otherwise required to be retained by law or regulation, or targeted disposal is not reasonably feasible given how it is kept. It also requires periodic review of your data retention policy. Records a statute or regulation above requires you to keep appear to fall within the exception for information \"required to be retained by law or regulation\" while that rule requires them; the exception does not say whether IRS form instructions, such as those for Form 8879, count.\n\n### What changes when files sit with a cloud platform, portal or other provider?\n\nKeep a current list of every system, portal, provider and backup that holds client files: the Safeguards Rule requires you to identify and manage your data and systems, and it reaches information maintained on your behalf. It also requires you to take reasonable steps to select providers capable of appropriate safeguards, require those safeguards by contract, and periodically assess their continued adequacy.\n\nDeleting a file from your own system does not delete a provider's copies, including portal uploads and backups. Get each provider's written confirmation of what it deleted and when; no rule opened here requires it, but without it you cannot show the deletion. If a provider will not confirm, record what it holds and its stated deletion practice.\n\n## What stops routine destruction, and how do you apply and lift a hold?\n\nThese events extend a destruction date:\n\n| Event | Effect |\n|---|---|\n| California Board investigation, disciplinary action or other legal action involving the licensee or, for audit documentation, its firm | Section 5097 extends the audit-documentation period; regulations 68.1 and 68.3 bar disposal until the Board notifies you in writing of closure or, with no Board investigation pending, the legal action reaches final disposition |\n| New York State Education Department investigation or disciplinary proceeding related to the work papers | Section 29.10 keeps them until the Department notifies you in writing of closure or the proceeding reaches final disposition |\n| Litigation anticipated or under way | Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 37(e) lets a federal court act when electronically stored information \"that should have been preserved in the anticipation or conduct of litigation\" is lost because a party failed to take reasonable steps to preserve it |\n| A records request not yet met | Keep the records; the AICPA Code's release from longer retention applies only after a member has complied with the request |\n\nAn open IRS examination of a return you prepared, a fee dispute or a client complaint should also stop destruction of that client's file until resolved. No rule opened here makes these three holds, or the routine below, mandatory; they are a precaution. Run holds as a routine, in this order:\n\n1. Before each destruction run, check every file due against a register of open examinations, disputes, complaints, board inquiries, threatened or pending claims and unanswered records requests.\n2. Mark each held file, and every copy in backups, portals and provider systems, so no automated deletion reaches it.\n3. Tell staff and any provider holding copies, in writing, and record who placed the hold, when and why.\n4. Lift the hold in writing once the matter closes.\n\n## Should you keep records longer than the rules require?\n\nAU-C section 230, California's section 5097 and New York's section 29.10 state their periods as minimums, and New York allows work papers to be kept longer, even permanently. Once a member has complied with a records request, the AICPA Code says it has no ethical obligation to keep records longer than professional standards, statutes, regulations and contracts require.\n\nExtra years kept to defend against a possible claim are a business decision, not a compliance requirement. They mean more information to secure, more exposure in a breach, and more material to search and produce in a dispute. No rule opened here says whether defending a possible claim counts as a legitimate business purpose under the FTC exception; writing your reason into your retention policy and engagement letter records the decision but does not settle that question. The AICPA Code notes that contracts may add requirements; no rule opened here lets an agreement shorten a period a regulation or board sets.\n\n## What happens to client records if the practice closes, is sold, or its practitioner dies or retires?\n\nUnder 26 CFR 1.6107-1, if a corporation or partnership subject to the return-retention rule is dissolved before the 3-year period ends, the persons responsible for winding up its affairs under state law remain subject to the rule or, if state law names none, the directors or general partners collectively; for the penalty they are deemed the tax return preparer.\n\nThe AICPA Code's interpretation 1.400.205 sets these steps for members:\n\n- **Selling or transferring and keeping no ownership.** Ask each affected client in writing to consent to transferring its files, saying consent may be presumed if it does not respond within not less than 90 days, unless law or board rules prohibit that. Transfer nothing before consent or the lapse of 90 days, and arrange to return required records for files not transferred.\n- **Closing without a successor.** Notify each client in writing and arrange to return the records you must provide.\n- **Clients you cannot reach.** Keep their files confidential for the longer of your retention policy and any legal or regulatory requirement.\n- **Buying.** Satisfy yourself that the predecessor's clients consented.\n\nCalifornia's regulations add steps for licensees. Regulation 54.3 requires a licensee selling or transferring a practice, and keeping no ownership, to give written notice by first-class or certified mail, or agreed electronic transmission, with consent presumed only if the client does not object within 90 days; it transfers nothing before then, keeps the notice and responses for not less than four years, and returns records to clients who object, and records not included in the sale, without delay or as agreed. Regulation 54.4 requires written notice of a closure giving its date and, if you hold client records, the date and method of their delivery or return, and requires you to return client records without delay or as agreed. Under both, records of clients who cannot be reached are kept not less than four years, or the audit-documentation period if longer, then disposed of by shredding, erasing or otherwise making them unreadable. Business and Professions Code section 5037 bars selling, transferring or bequeathing working papers without client consent except to surviving or new partners or stockholders, a combined or merged firm, or a successor in interest.\n\nThese steps bind AICPA members and California licensees. None of the other rules opened here says what a non-member must tell clients when a practice closes or is sold, so check your own board's rules and the federal limits below before transferring any file.\n\nThe section 7216 regulations let client lists and retained records pass to another person only with the sale or other disposition of the tax return preparation business. A prospective buyer's review before the sale counts as part of the sale only under a written agreement requiring confidentiality and barring further disclosure or use for other purposes. On a preparer's incapacity or death, the regulations permit disclosure to help the preparer or its legal or estate representative operate the business, and anyone receiving the information becomes a tax return preparer for section 7216's penalties. A solo practitioner should name in writing who will take custody of the files and the schedule on the practitioner's incapacity or death, with access only then and only to help the practitioner or its legal or estate representative operate the business, and tell that person about those penalties. No rule opened here requires this, and earlier access falls outside the provision above.\n\n## What does a retention schedule by record class look like?\n\nBuild the schedule by class, not as one firm-wide period:\n\n| Record class | Authority | Clock starts | Period stated | Extended by |\n|---|---|---|---|---|\n| Copy or list of returns, and signer record | 26 CFR 1.6107-1 | Close of the return period of signature, or later period when due | 3 years | Hold register |\n| Form 8879 | Form 8879 instructions | Later of due date and IRS received date | 3 years | Hold register |\n| Due-diligence file | 26 CFR 1.6695-2 | Latest listed date | 3 years | Hold register |\n| Audit documentation | AU-C 230; California 5097 and 68.3; New York 29.10 | Report release or issuance | At least 5 years (AU-C); at least 7 (California, New York) | Board matters; legal action; hold register |\n| Other working papers | New York 29.10; California 68.1 | Work product issuance (New York) | At least 7 years (New York); a sufficient period (California) | Board matters; legal action; hold register |\n| Client-provided records | Circular 230 10.28; AICPA 1.400.200; California 68; New York 29.10 | Client's request | Return on request; you may keep copies | Hold register |\n| Member-prepared records | AICPA 1.400.200; California 68; New York 29.10 | — | No retention period in the rules opened; make available on request (members may withhold for the related work product's unpaid fees; California licensees may not) | Unanswered request; hold register |\n| Work products other than return copies | AICPA 1.400.200; New York 29.10 | — | No retention period in the rules opened; New York licensees must furnish copies of tax returns and previously issued reports on request | Unanswered request; hold register |\n| Unreachable clients' files after a sale or closure | AICPA 1.400.205; California 54.3 and 54.4 | Sale or closure (California) | Longer of policy and legal requirement (AICPA); at least 4 years, or the audit period if longer (California) | Hold register |\n| Individual clients' information | FTC Safeguards Rule | Last date used to serve the client | Dispose within 2 years unless an exception applies | Any legal duty to retain |",
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      "title": "31 CFR 10.2, Definitions, and 10.3, Who may practice (Treasury Circular 230)",
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      "published": "31 CFR Subtitle A (7-1-25 Edition)",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-09-28T01:38:09+00:00",
      "sha256": "80776b1670c32c350ff740b3a42fff35748d936d21ffe3f8b1e028329fbd502a",
      "supports": [
        "C7",
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        "C10"
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    },
    {
      "id": "REF::8",
      "url": "https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2025-title31-vol1/pdf/CFR-2025-title31-vol1-sec10-28.pdf",
      "title": "31 CFR 10.28, Return of client's records (Treasury Circular 230)",
      "publisher": "U.S. Government Publishing Office",
      "published": "31 CFR Subtitle A (7-1-25 Edition)",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-09-28T01:38:10+00:00",
      "sha256": "07582befed67f93ac3051f4344e2d3dee9da4116adf70a10c53d571f128cf94c",
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        "C74",
        "C75",
        "C76",
        "C77",
        "C78",
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      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "REF::9",
      "url": "https://www.dca.ca.gov/cba/about/cba_regs.pdf",
      "title": "California Board of Accountancy Regulations (California Code of Regulations, Title 16, Division 1)",
      "publisher": "California Board of Accountancy",
      "published": "Current as of July 1, 2026",
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        "C187",
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    },
    {
      "id": "REF::10",
      "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=BPC&sectionNum=5097",
      "title": "Business and Professions Code section 5097",
      "publisher": "California Legislative Information",
      "published": "Added by Stats. 2002, Ch. 230, Sec. 2, effective January 1, 2003",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-09-28T01:38:11+00:00",
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    },
    {
      "id": "REF::11",
      "url": "https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=BPC&sectionNum=5037",
      "title": "Business and Professions Code section 5037",
      "publisher": "California Legislative Information",
      "published": "Amended by Stats. 2023, Ch. 510, Sec. 66 (SB 887), effective January 1, 2024",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-09-28T01:38:12+00:00",
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    },
    {
      "id": "REF::12",
      "url": "https://www.op.nysed.gov/title8/rules-board-regents/part-29",
      "title": "Rules of the Board of Regents, Part 29, Unprofessional Conduct",
      "publisher": "New York State Education Department, Office of the Professions",
      "published": "undated",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-09-28T01:38:16+00:00",
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        "C133",
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      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "REF::13",
      "url": "https://www.op.nysed.gov/professions/certified-public-accountants/laws-rules-regulations/article-149",
      "title": "Article 149, Public Accountancy (Education Law)",
      "publisher": "New York State Education Department, Office of the Professions",
      "published": "undated",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-09-28T01:38:16+00:00",
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      "id": "REF::14",
      "url": "https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2025-title26-vol20/pdf/CFR-2025-title26-vol20-sec301-7216-2.pdf",
      "title": "26 CFR 301.7216-2, Permissible disclosures or uses without consent of the taxpayer (with the opening of § 301.7216-3)",
      "publisher": "U.S. Government Publishing Office",
      "published": "26 CFR Ch. I (4-1-25 Edition)",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-09-28T01:38:17+00:00",
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        "C184",
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    {
      "id": "REF::15",
      "url": "https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2025-title16-vol1/pdf/CFR-2025-title16-vol1-sec314-2.pdf",
      "title": "16 CFR 314.2, Definitions (Standards for Safeguarding Customer Information)",
      "publisher": "U.S. Government Publishing Office",
      "published": "16 CFR Ch. I (1-1-25 Edition)",
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      "title": "16 CFR 314.4, Elements (Standards for Safeguarding Customer Information)",
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    {
      "id": "REF::17",
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      "publisher": "Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School",
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      "retrieved_at": "2026-09-28T01:38:18+00:00",
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  ],
  "related": [
    {
      "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-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-004",
      "slug": "what-receipts-and-records-the-irs-accepts-for-business-expenses",
      "display_title": "What receipts and records does the IRS accept to substantiate business expenses, and when is a receipt required (e.g., the $75 threshold)?"
    },
    {
      "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": "4920cea98dd80483e0aafc7abeaa10e53d4c6bb1edea676e1dba9b8b38d898df",
    "editorial_disposition": "ACCEPT",
    "corrections": 1,
    "approved_by": null,
    "approved_at": null,
    "article_sha256": "4920cea98dd80483e0aafc7abeaa10e53d4c6bb1edea676e1dba9b8b38d898df",
    "source_map_sha256": "ffbd4a4393114a04a51d584f8279d558c982c2368873b8ec5aa3b0d2d4d5e589",
    "transform_sha256": "04ff9cc21acf0615988ef2d5f332417d5b92863162716412f38e62e3610368ae"
  },
  "offer": "ask",
  "offer_id": null,
  "sample_target_id": null,
  "datePublished": "2026-09-28T18:39:45Z",
  "reviewed_at": "2026-09-28T18:39:45Z",
  "content_sha": "2fe13f26323c0e29b0254d1cb5c9ddc095e851d7cec6e4ef9bb0678398e5bd79",
  "release": "2.12.0",
  "slug_provenance": "minted at first publication",
  "question_text": "How long must a tax preparer, accountant, or bookkeeping firm keep client records and copies of client returns?",
  "jsonld_types": [
    "Article"
  ],
  "related_question_ids": [
    "Q-0004",
    "CG-P1B-FULL-031",
    "CG-P1B-012",
    "CG-P1B-004",
    "Q-0024"
  ],
  "aliases": [],
  "alias_provenance": [],
  "notice": "This guide is general information, not tax or legal advice. Confirm with a qualified professional before acting."
}