Record Retention Guidelines
We are often asked about how long specific records should be kept. Discarding records that should be kept poses a wide range of potential tax and legal problems. As to your tax records, the statute of limitations period for income tax returns is generally three years. It is six years if there is a substantial understatement of gross income. A good rule to thumb is to add a year to the statute of limitations period. Using this approach, taxpayers should keep most of their income tax records a minimum of four years, but it is be more prudent to retain them for seven years.
We recommend that you keep your tax records for at least 7 years. Please visit https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc305 for more information.
Government Links:
Tax Withholding Estimator:
https://apps.irs.gov/app/tax-withholding-estimator
W-4 Form:
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf
W-9 Form:
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw9.pdf
Installment agreement:
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f433d.pdf
DE-4:
https://www.edd.ca.gov/pdf_pub_ctr/de4.pdf
Federal and state refund tracking links:
https://www.irs.gov/refunds
https://www.ftb.ca.gov/refund/index.asp