For most federal tax returns, three years is the answer to how many years you should keep tax returns and their supporting paperwork. That’s the window the IRS generally has to audit you and assess additional tax, and the same window you have to amend or claim a refund.1Internal Revenue Service. How Long Should I Keep Records? Several specific situations stretch that timeline to six years, seven years, ten years, or no limit at all. The right retention period depends on what’s on your return.
The Three-Year Default
The IRS has three years from the date you filed to assess additional tax. If you filed before the due date, the return is treated as filed on the due date, so a 2025 return filed on March 1, 2026, starts its three-year clock on April 15, 2026.2Internal Revenue Service. Time IRS Can Assess Tax
This baseline covers the ordinary case: all income reported, no special deductions, no foreign accounts, no losses carried forward. If that’s you, holding your 2025 return and its backup paperwork until roughly mid-2029 is enough.
Six Years for Understated Income
Omit more than 25% of the gross income shown on your return and the IRS gets six years instead of three.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 6501 – Limitations on Assessment and Collection Intent doesn’t matter. A forgotten 1099, a missed freelance payment, or a misunderstanding about what counts as gross income can all put you in this territory.
A separate six-year trigger applies if you fail to report more than $5,000 in income tied to foreign financial assets that should have appeared on Form 8938.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 6501 – Limitations on Assessment and Collection If there’s any real chance your reported income was low, six years of records is the floor. Many tax advisors add a seventh year as a buffer.
Seven Years for Worthless Securities and Bad Debts
If you claim a loss deduction for a worthless security or a bad debt, keep the records for seven years from the filing date of the return that claimed the loss.4Internal Revenue Service. Publication 583, Starting a Business and Keeping Records The exact year a security became worthless or a debt became uncollectible is often contested, and the extra time exists to sort that out.
No Time Limit at All
Two situations remove the statute of limitations entirely. If you file a fraudulent return with intent to evade tax, the IRS can assess additional tax at any point in the future, without limit.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 6501 – Limitations on Assessment and Collection
The second situation is more common: if you were required to file and never did, the clock never starts. That year stays open indefinitely.5Internal Revenue Service. Help Yourself by Filing Past-Due Tax Returns Any records tied to an unfiled year need to be kept until the return is finally filed and its resulting three-year window closes.
Records You Should Keep Indefinitely
Some records don’t fit a fixed year count because the clock doesn’t start until a future event you can’t predict. Hold these for as long as you own the underlying asset, and often longer.
Property and Investment Basis
Anything that establishes your cost basis in an asset should be kept until at least three years after you file the return reporting its sale.1Internal Revenue Service. How Long Should I Keep Records? For a house bought in 2010, improved in 2015, and sold in 2030, the closing statement and improvement receipts stay in your files until about 2034. Brokerages track basis for shares purchased after 2012, but you’re still on the hook for older lots.
Nondeductible IRA Contributions
Every Form 8606 you’ve ever filed reporting after-tax contributions to a traditional IRA should be kept until you’ve fully emptied all your traditional IRAs and the statute of limitations has expired on that final year’s return.6Internal Revenue Service. About Form 8606, Nondeductible IRAs Those forms are what prove which portion of your withdrawals is tax-free. Lose them and you can end up paying tax twice on the same money.
Gift Tax Returns
Keep copies of Form 709 and the appraisals attached to them permanently. They document your lifetime use of the gift tax exclusion, and the IRS can review earlier gift tax returns when examining a later gift return or an estate return.7Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 709 (2025)
Inherited Property Records
When you inherit property, your basis is generally its fair market value on the date of death. The estate may have reported that value on Form 706 and given it to you via Form 8971.8Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 706 (Rev. September 2025) Keep that documentation for as long as you own the asset, plus three years after you sell it.
Loss Carryforwards Extend the Clock
If you carry a net operating loss or capital loss into future years, the records supporting the original loss need to survive until the statute of limitations expires on the last return the loss affects. A capital loss that takes four years to use up keeps its original documentation on file for at least seven years total: four years of carryforward plus the three-year assessment window on the final year.1Internal Revenue Service. How Long Should I Keep Records?
Refund Claims Have Their Own Deadline
Retention isn’t only about audits. You have until the later of three years from when you filed or two years from when you paid the tax to claim a refund.9Internal Revenue Service. Time You Can Claim a Credit or Refund Miss that window and the money is gone, even if you clearly overpaid.
The recoverable amount is also limited by timing. A claim filed within the three-year window is capped at what you paid during those three years plus any filing extensions. A claim filed within the two-year window is capped at what you paid in those two years.9Internal Revenue Service. Time You Can Claim a Credit or Refund Keeping returns and payment records for at least three years protects that refund path.
If You Have Employees
Employers face a different schedule. Employment tax records must be kept for at least four years after filing the fourth-quarter return for the year, including W-4s, deposit records, and EFTPS acknowledgment numbers. Documentation for qualified sick and family leave wages for leave taken after March 31, 2021, and employee retention credit wages paid after June 30, 2021, should be kept for at least six years.10Internal Revenue Service. Employment Tax Recordkeeping
What Counts as a Record
The retention rules apply to everything that supports a number on your return, not just the return itself. W-2s, 1099s, bank and brokerage statements, expense receipts, charitable donation letters, closing documents, and Forms 1095-A, 1095-B, and 1095-C all live as long as the return they back up.1Internal Revenue Service. How Long Should I Keep Records?11Internal Revenue Service. 2025 Instructions for Forms 1094-C and 1095-C
In an audit, the burden of proof is on you. You have to prove the income, deductions, and credits on your return, and that generally means producing receipts, statements, or other documentation.12Internal Revenue Service. Burden of Proof Travel, entertainment, and vehicle expenses require contemporaneous logs on top of receipts. Without the underlying evidence, the IRS will typically disallow the item in question.
Digital Storage Is Fine, With Conditions
The IRS accepts digitized records, but the electronic copies have to be legible enough that every letter and number can be identified, the system must prevent unauthorized changes, and the indexing has to let you find any specific record quickly.13Internal Revenue Service. Rev. Proc. 97-22 Paper originals can be destroyed after scanning, but only once you’ve confirmed the digital copies are complete and readable, and you have to be able to produce hard copies on request. Cloud storage, an external drive, or a dedicated scanning app all qualify as long as those requirements are met.
State Tax Records
State and local authorities set their own retention rules, and they don’t always mirror the IRS. Most states follow a three-year assessment window, but some run four to seven years, and their retention obligations tend to stretch to match. Check your state’s revenue department before you rely on the federal schedule alone.
A Practical Rule
If your return had only ordinary income and standard deductions, three years is enough. If it included business income, foreign accounts, self-employment, or anything that could be second-guessed on the income side, six or seven years is safer. If it involved property, IRA basis, gifts, or losses carried forward, some of the underlying paperwork stays with you far longer than the return itself. And any year you failed to file, or filed fraudulently, has no deadline the IRS has to respect.