[The Jester of Wibbly]

Out of interest...For how many years do you chaps hold onto your accounting paperwork before you have a clear out?

[Slacky]

6 years

[Splash & dash]

Legally I think it’s 6-7 years that you have to keep it??

[cleaniac]

It is legally 6 years due to statute of limitations.

However it has been known in cases of tax investigations that hmrc will ask for up to 40 years proof in extreme cases to prove or disprove a figure they have dreamed up in an investigation. So even though legally you dobt have to keep paperwork over 6 years, hmrc have powers to enforce figures that they think you owe if you cant disprove them in court wothout the supporting paperwork.  These are genrally criminal cases of tax evasion, but some have been cought out by binning paperwork after statute of limits and then get an investigation with a dreamed up figure that they cant disprove cos they binned the paperwork.