Free Shredding at Staples today for Tax Day

Today, in honor of Tax day, Staples is offering free document shredding up to 5 lbs. Its a great way to get old documents safely out of the way to make room for more current papers. Remember, when archiving, labeling and dating those boxes is very important, but it's also important to make sure they don't just keep piling up forever. The IRS suggests keeping tax backup documentation generally seven years (check with your accountant for more specifics based on your returns). After those 7 years, make sure you have outflow happening so things don't just keep getting stacked up in storage. You don't need 20 years of tax documentation, however, you do want to keep all the actual returns indefinitely. Pull out the return and discard monthly statements, receipts, etc... Here is our document retention list as a general guideline.It's important to have good systems in place for all archived documents. Having those systems organized and knowing exactly where sensitive documents are located and safely shredding what is no longer needed will also help you avoid identity theft. Of course, our expert organizers at Chaos To Order are happy to facilitate the job.