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We have a file drawer of all our tithing slips, finance transactions, reimbursement forms, monthly financial statements, etc. How long should we keep those paper copies before we can recycle them? It looks like according to lds.org, we can review transactions for up to three years so should we only retain paper records for 3 years?

The answer depends on the country. In the US, it's "3 years plus current". So, as of this post, you can shred anything dated 2014 or before. (2015, 2016, 2017 being the "three year" and 2018 being "the plus current".)

But other countries can have longer retention periods. I think 5 is pretty common.

russellhltn wrote:The answer depends on the country. In the US, it's "3 years plus current". So, as of this post, you can shred anything dated 2014 or before. (2015, 2016, 2017 being the "three year" and 2018 being "the plus current".)

But other countries can have longer retention periods. I think 5 is pretty common.

Thanks for the response, I thought it was 3 years too. What type of paper copies do you normally keep for retention that is required?

cchang wrote:What type of paper copies do you normally keep for retention that is required?

Pretty much all of it. The donation batches plus the expense documentation. There may be optional MLS reports that can be discarded. I think I'd keep one expense/income report for each month any discard others. Likewise any that are just informational about how quickly the budget is being expended.

You can probably ask your auditor for more detailed information.