How long does your business need to retain documents?

In brief - Different rules apply to different types of documents

The length of time your business needs to retain documents depends on what they are. Some documents may need to be retained indefinitely.

The seven year principle

Ask a business owner how long you should retain your documents, and the answer is likely to be that documents must be kept for a period of seven years after the date on which they were created.

This wisdom appears to come from various company law requirements which provide that a company's financial records must be retained for a period of seven years after the transactions covered by the records are completed.

However, as with all conventional wisdom, it should be taken with a grain of salt. As you would expect with anything legal, the answer can vary.