Does the irs destroy tax records after 7 years

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has some hard and fast rules regarding how long taxpayers should keep their tax records.

As the IRS puts it, the duration of your tax record keeping depends on the “action, expense, or event” impacting those records.

Those actions, and those timelines, are important, as they impact the statute of limitations on any amendments to your tax return, or the federal government’s ability to demand additional tax payments from you.

The period of limitations is the time in which you can amend your tax return to claim a credit or refund, or the time in which the IRS can assess additional tax.

How long should you keep your tax records in case of an audit

The following information is directly from IRS.gov, which states how long to keep income tax returns. The years specified begin after the return was filed. Any returns filed before the due date are considered to have been filed on the due date.

1. Keep records for three years if situations (4), (5), and (6) below do not apply to you.
2. Keep records for three years from the date you filed your original return or two year
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