{"id":13032,"date":"2015-04-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/how-long-you-should-keep-your-tax-returns-and-supporting-documents\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T14:57:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T14:57:06","slug":"how-long-you-should-keep-your-tax-returns-and-supporting-documents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/how-long-you-should-keep-your-tax-returns-and-supporting-documents\/","title":{"rendered":"How Long You Should Keep Your Tax Returns and Supporting Documents"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#039;re reading this, something about your tax situation has you worried. That&#039;s fair \u2014 the IRS is intimidating until you know how the rules actually work. I&#039;m Darrin Mish, a Tampa tax attorney. I&#039;ve handled cases like yours for 32 years. Let me walk you through it.<\/p>\n<p>Once you have filed your tax returns, it is not the end of the story. \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/tag\/irs-audit\/\">The IRS is given\u00a0time to peruse your tax documents and contact you for an audit if warranted.<\/a> \u00a0And that does not have to be within the same tax year. \u00a0And should the IRS require an audit from you, you have to comply. \u00a0You will be given notice by mail that your case has been flagged for an audit. \u00a0If that happens, you have to reply to the IRS&#8217; letter and give your full cooperation. \u00a0The audit may be done in person or sometimes over the phone. \u00a0This will be arranged by the IRS agent. \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/category\/irs-help\/\">Click here to read or watch more IRS Help resources.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>So because of the possibility of an audit after the current tax year, it is important to keep records of your tax returns and all supporting documents for at least a period of time after you have filed them. \u00a0But for how long should you do so?<\/p>\n<p>Read more about <a title=\"How long to keep your tax returns\" href=\"http:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/news\/local\/asked-answered\/2015\/04\/07\/asked-answered-keep-tax-returns-least-years-cbt\/25397675\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">how long to keep your tax returns<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#039;re reading this, something about your tax situation has you worried. That&#039;s fair \u2014 the IRS is intimidating until you know how the rules actually work. I&#039;m Darrin Mish, a Tampa tax attorney. I&#039;ve handled cases like yours for 32 years. Let me walk you through it. Once you have filed your tax returns, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-13032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-irs-help","tag-irs-audit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13032"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22430,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13032\/revisions\/22430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/getirshelp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}