While in the process of cleaning out our "stuff" to get us closer to full timing we hit a roadblock when we looked at the multiple boxes of tax-related records. I believe it's recommended to keep anything that you might need for an IRS audit for 7 years but we really don't want to have anything in storage anywhere when it comes time to hit the road. Does anyone have any recommendations on what to do with these items?
janni said
10:05 AM Jan 9, 2011
We have all of ours with us in a storage tote. Guess there was a couple things we just couldn't dump. lol
Trabuco said
10:25 AM Jan 9, 2011
You can scan them and keep them on CD. An electronic copy takes up a lot less room. You can probably get all 7 years on 1 CD.
RVRon said
11:58 AM Jan 9, 2011
Thanks Janni & Ken. We'd actually thought of both options and either way we'll have to go through things and save only what we think is absolutely necessary. We really don't want to take up any more space in the RV than necessary (we only have 95 cu. ft. of exterior storage). I thought of the scanning but I think we'd better start right now if we hope to get it all done by next year's target date! Maybe a combination of the 2 might work...
janni said
12:49 PM Jan 9, 2011
Now, I am no cpa or anything but I think there were a certain amount of hard copy that you have to keep so might check with IRS website to make sure.
Terry and Jo said
01:17 PM Jan 9, 2011
Please allow me to apologize right up front, but I just can't resist this one.
Jo and I plan to be full-timing so that we can stay one step AHEAD of the government.
Seriously, though, we've done little in the way of things that end up getting us audited. We tend to keep things as simple as possible. Over the years, we found that itemizing on our taxes just didn't pay UNLESS those were business related.
So, in our case, seven years of taxes would fit in a manila envelope with room to spare.
Your Mileage May Vary.
Terry
RVRon said
03:41 PM Jan 9, 2011
Terry and Jo wrote:
Jo and I plan to be full-timing so that we can stay one step AHEAD of the government.
Well, at least I guess you could say they'd have one heck of a time catching up with you!
Seriously though, we've never been audited but I trust the IRS (and the government as a whole for that matter) about like I trust a snake oil salesman! I've always lived by the motto: "Prepare for the worst then hope for the best".
Racerguy said
04:20 PM Jan 9, 2011
Linda and I have not had enough deductions to do anything but use the standard deduction for years so like Terry our tax records are minimal.I would think electronic records would be the way to go.
heyduke said
06:51 AM Jan 10, 2011
the tax code suggest you only need to keep records for three years but there are exceptions that suggest 7 years - check it out yourself
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=98513,00.html
RVRon said
08:09 AM Jan 10, 2011
heyduke wrote:
the tax code suggest you only need to keep records for three years but there are exceptions that suggest 7 years - check it out yourself
Thanks for the IRS link! Looks like we don't have to keep everything for the full 7 years so there's more stuff we can toss... well actually, shred. Fortunately, last year, with the aim of going full electronic bill paying and banking, I started to scan or save .pdf files of most everything I pay for, using Quicken. So now I'm really looking at only 2 years of stuff to maybe save.
NorCal Dan said
12:30 PM Jan 10, 2011
I've been thinking of getting this product. Anybody using it?
http://www.neatco.com/
The website says it creates "IRS acceptable documents". It will scan and organize all kinds of paper items like receipts, business cards, etc. Might be just what us RV'ers need for eliminating the paper trail.
Jo and I plan to be full-timing so that we can stay one step AHEAD of the government.
Seriously, though, we've done little in the way of things that end up getting us audited. We tend to keep things as simple as possible. Over the years, we found that itemizing on our taxes just didn't pay UNLESS those were business related.
So, in our case, seven years of taxes would fit in a manila envelope with room to spare.
Your Mileage May Vary.
Terry
Seriously though, we've never been audited but I trust the IRS (and the government as a whole for that matter) about like I trust a snake oil salesman! I've always lived by the motto: "Prepare for the worst then hope for the best".