If you're like me and want to store as little paper as possible,

tax season is an excellent time to pair down your files to the bare essentials.

Whether your system is entirely paperless, I'm getting there,

or you have boxes and cabinets stuffed with mystery documents. It's essential to

know what to toss, what to save, and how long to keep the items that you do save. This podcast

will review how to manage your tax returns, financial documents, and other critical paperwork

so you follow IRS rules, avoid headaches, and have what

you need for future transactions. Welcome back, everyone. I appreciate you joining me for

Money Girl episode 898. I'm Laura Adams, an award-winning author, an on-camera spokesperson,

money speaker, founder of the money stack.

That's my substack newsletter and host of this show, Money Girl, with over 43 million downloads.

If you're enjoying the free content that we love creating, take a moment to rate and review the show in your podcast app.

And if you've got a question about money, I'd love to hear it.

You can leave it on our voicemail at 302-364-0308. You can also visit laura d Adams.com to email me

directly and learn more about my books, courses, and sign up for the free MoneyStack Newsletter.

All right, so let's get into five tips you need to know about which documents you actually need

to keep for how long and whether you need physical copies, digital copies, or both.

Okay, tip number one is digitize your file tax returns. This is

something I'm still working on. The IRS allows you to keep digital copies of your file

tax returns and the supporting documents, like the things that back up your income, your tax deductions, and your tax credits.

In general, individuals must keep tax returns and all that backup for a minimum of three years.

And you have up to three years to file an amended return or even get chosen for a tax audit. However, you can claim a loss

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