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Tax papers


BarbDan17

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We are putting our house up for sale in the middle of April and should be FT as soon as we close. We are still frantically getting rid of things and getting the house ready to sell. We are unsure what to do with our tax papers. I searched the forums and only found two instances mentioning tax papers. One said they have their papers stored with family and another said they were scanning them. If you're audited, is a scan acceptable?

 

What are the rest of you doing with your tax papers? We usually keep 7 years of filings.

 

Thanks,

 

Barbara and Dan

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We are putting our house up for sale in the middle of April and should be FT as soon as we close. We are still frantically getting rid of things and getting the house ready to sell. We are unsure what to do with our tax papers. I searched the forums and only found two instances mentioning tax papers. One said they have their papers stored with family and another said they were scanning them. If you're audited, is a scan acceptable?

 

What are the rest of you doing with your tax papers? We usually keep 7 years of filings.

The middle road is to keep the actual tax documents but scan the supporting documents. That way, 7 years forms don't take up much space.

 

Linda Sand

Blog: http://sandcastle.sandsys.org/

Former Rigs: Liesure Travel van, Winnebago View 24H, Winnebago Journey 34Y, Sportsmobile Sprinter conversion van

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We keep one year with us. The rest(3years if they are simple returns) are kept in our safety box at our daughters. We carry nothing, including SS cards and original titles for vehicles with us except for passports and one year of medical EOB. overnight FedEx can get them to us. If the IRS wants to audit me they will give me more time than 24 hours to show them our stuff

Ron & Linda

Class of 2007
2000 Monaco Diplomat

2005 Honda Element

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are" Theodore Roosevelt

"We can't control the wind, but we can adjust our sail"

"When man gave up his freedom to roam the earth, he gave up his soul for a conditioned ego that is bound by time and the fear of losing its attachments."

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I carry a fire proof file cabinet and inside it 2 small fire proof safes. In the MH.

Have all taxes done by Turbo Tax on line and save all forms in PDF and have copies on the cloud.

 

I also keep my SS card, birth certificate, titles to vehicles and other important bank papers(CD's cash) etc. in the same cabinet

 

Has worked for over 17 years of Full Time for me.

OH!! I have never been audited yet. . :) Got my refund back 2/22/16 for 2015 filing.

Full Time since Oct. 1999
99 Discovery 34Q DP | ISB
Datastorm | VMSpc | Co-Pilot Live | Pressure Pro
2014 MKS Twin Turbo V6 365 HP Toad
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Don't get over-confident on 'fireproof' boxes. A friend's RV was involved in a fire and what was left in the box were ashes. Perhaps some 'fireproof' boxes are better than others but he thought he was covered.

Full-timed for 16 Years
Traveled 8 yr in a 2004 Newmar Dutch Star 40' Motorhome
and 8 yr in a 33' Travel Supreme 5th Wheel

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The IRS has three years to audit a return before the statute of limitations expires. If they find a substantial under reporting error, they can go back up to six years. The IRS has no time limit when an audit pertains to assessment of tax if a return is false or fraudulent or not filed at all.

Dutch
2001 GBM Landau 34' Class A
F-53 Chassis, Triton V10, TST TPMS
2011 Toyota RAV4 4WD/Remco pump
ReadyBrute Elite tow bar/brake system

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We keep 7 years of records but we do so digitally. Files in .pdf are acceptable and in fact that is the format that auditors use as well. Should you need them you can easily print out hard copies. We keep a copy with us and a second copy on a thumb drive that is in a safety deposit box that we share with our son.

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

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All of ours are electronic because all of our tax documents from the past 10 years have been electronic. And since we take standard deduction, we don't have any receipts to save. Things get real simple when you don't earn alot and live a very unencumbered lifestyle. :)

Barb & Dave O'Keeffe
2002 Alpine 36 MDDS (Figment II), 2018 Ford C-Max HYBRID
Blog: http://www.barbanddave.net
SPK# 90761 FMCA #F337834

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We do the reverse of Linda. We keep the supporting documentation which may be harder to replace in original and scan everything just in case. We itemize and for the last few years have had less common deductions so I'm cautious about my supporting documentation. Hopefully things will simplify after we finish with the S&B and then we'll probably just scan everything.

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We do the taxes online and simply copy the forms to disc .We are pretty much the same as Barb& Dave

Helen and I are long timers ..08 F-350 Ford,LB,CC,6.4L,4X4, Dually,4:10 diff dragging around a 2013 Montana 3402 Big Sky

SKP 100137. North Ridgeville, Ohio in the summer, sort of and where ever it is warm in the winter.

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If you have non-deductable contributions to an IRA or other retirement plan you must keep the records

from when you made those contributions. Which can well be longer then 7 years which is my case.

I was audited for the 2011 tax year and it was not a problem, at all. We had the records in a computer file and I printed then and they wanted

our 2011 bank statements along with 12/10 and 1/12. They checked each source of income listed on the bank statements.

In our case the audit was because we had losses on our cattle operation for three years in a row. They came to our ranch because they

wanted to see that we had a ranch with cattle.

The out come, we received additional $476 refund and we agreeded to stop taking the loss on our cattle operation.

They would have let us continue with the losses if I had a business plan where I could show that we could make a profit.

I can't show were I could make a profit so they just let it go and said not to do it any more or the could come after me and they could call the cattle operation

a hobby. We were very please with the out come. We feel that we should pay our sare of taxes.

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Thanks everyone for all the great responses. Even if we have everything stored somewhere, it sounds like we need to have scans &/or pdf format. Fires, floods, tornado's etc., happen everywhere and no guarantee wherever we store things wouldn't be in harms way. Hopefully, our taxes will be less paperwork as we get further away from owning a S&B.

 

Safe travels, one and all!

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Some fireproof safes or boxes are better than others and are usually marked as to the temp they can withstand and the time they can withstand it. You get what you pay for.

Helen and I are long timers ..08 F-350 Ford,LB,CC,6.4L,4X4, Dually,4:10 diff dragging around a 2013 Montana 3402 Big Sky

SKP 100137. North Ridgeville, Ohio in the summer, sort of and where ever it is warm in the winter.

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We have filed electronic tax returns for years now and I always save the tax forms to the computer, rather than printing them out (which I can do at any time). Most of the supporting forms we receive -- 1099-R, 1099-INT, 1099-DIV, and similar forms are also downloaded from the source, so we don't receive paper copies.

 

We've never been audited, but in today's electronic environment, I can't imagine that the IRS would insist on original paper copies, particularly when none existed in the first place.

LindaH
2014 Winnebago Aspect 27K
2011 Kia Soul

 

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my tax accountant told me to keep 7 years worth of info in a place I could access quickly and easily if I got a letter in the mail from the IRS. That is NOT the time you want to be scrambling around looking for paperwork.

Sue and Paul- fulltimed 2009 -2015 with Dozer, our Gray Tuxedo cat

 2012 DRV Mobile Suites 36TKSB4 pulled by a 2020 F350 Platinum

Our "vacation home" : 2018 Arctic Fox 1150 truck camper

RIP Dozey

http://soos-ontheroad.blogspot.com/

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How long should I keep records?

https://www. irs.gov/.../How-long-should-I-keep...






Internal Revenue Service



Keep records for 3 years from the date you filed your original return or 2 years from the date you paid the tax, whichever is later, if you file a claim for credit or refund after you file your return. Keep records for 7 years if you file a claim for a loss from worthless securities or bad debt deduction.



Dave and Lana Hasper

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my tax accountant told me to keep 7 years worth of info in a place I could access quickly and easily if I got a letter in the mail from the IRS. That is NOT the time you want to be scrambling around looking for paperwork.

So, Soos,what did you choose as a place to access quickly? Do you have these on board with you, are they electronic, or some other place which others haven't mentioned?

 

Thanks for the input everyone.

 

Barbara & Dan

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  • 2 weeks later...

What the heck does a person do if they don't have records. IE a natural disaster for instance. I have always wondered and thought of it again lately with people losing everything in torandoes, floods, fire, etc. Now I am slightly concerned about the records on a very small IRA that I probably could not come up with records for. (not collecting on it yet)

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Whom ever you are invested with will have all of the information that you might need. I have one IRA that I invested in back when IRAs were first made available. I don't have any of the documentation left - but Vanguard does.

 

Barb

Barb & Dave O'Keeffe
2002 Alpine 36 MDDS (Figment II), 2018 Ford C-Max HYBRID
Blog: http://www.barbanddave.net
SPK# 90761 FMCA #F337834

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So, Soos,what did you choose as a place to access quickly? Do you have these on board with you, are they electronic, or some other place which others haven't mentioned?Thanks for the input everyone.Barbara & Dan

We keep them in the rig in a desk drawer, hard copy, but my accountant has copies as well, and anything I get electronically, such as Fidelity tax statements, I keep in a folder on the computer.

I guess I could scan everything I need to keep- it probably isn't much anyway. Maybe on some rainy day when I am really bored

Sue and Paul- fulltimed 2009 -2015 with Dozer, our Gray Tuxedo cat

 2012 DRV Mobile Suites 36TKSB4 pulled by a 2020 F350 Platinum

Our "vacation home" : 2018 Arctic Fox 1150 truck camper

RIP Dozey

http://soos-ontheroad.blogspot.com/

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We have pdf copies of turbo tax, however we also have a hard copy - 7 yrs worth . They really don't take up that much room. 2015 is bulky, as we sold our house/rental and it's the final return for our original home state and city where the house was located. I sort out and destroy some paperwork each year on Jan 1.

Pat DeJong

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