How Long to Keep Documents

[milly143]

How long should a limited company keep financial documents for? Bank statments, receipts, invoices, etc.

[tastymorsel]

7 years is the norm I think.

[McMouse]

7 years for the items you've listed. There are other documents like Employers Liability Insurance certs that should be kept for 40 years!!!

[milly143]

40 years! Blimey!

Thanks for the answers.

[twix123]

As Employers Liability can go right back to when an employee started working for a company it is possible for a claim to arise from an incident many years ago, hence the long time limit on this information, but plans are afoot to put these records on a centralised database, which will eventually obviate the need for companies to keep EL records for such a long period.

[chris1957au]

thr 7 year rule is interesting as its to do with tax, but in fact the tax or customs and excise can go back 7 years from the last error, so how long is a piece of string?

[crisgal]

after owning a bingo hall, we had to keep ours for 7 years.

[1eyedjack]

There is a difference between how long are you required by statute to keep records and how long is it in your interests to keep records. To take the tax angle as an example (and it is not the only angle), there is a statury requirement to keep them for a set number of years (6 or 7, I forget, depends where you measure from) and destruction within that period is an offense, regardless of the benefits of retaining them. Once that period has expired, you no longer have (for tax purposes) a statutory obligation to retain the records. HOWEVER, in certain limited circumstances HMRC may have the power to enquire into those years and, if dissatisfied, raise discovery assessments. Were they to go down that route, the burden of proof tends to rest with the taxpayer, which burden is obviously harder to discharge if the records are destroyed.

[Twenty20]

Or have a look here....

http://www.businessli...er?topicId=1082155451

'How long your company or organisation must normally retain records' and 'When you may need to retain records for longer than six years' should answer your question.