Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: records

The records-retention requirements for individuals and for businesses are different. They are also numerous, and their sources are scattered through a variety of unrelated state and federal laws and decisions of courts and rules of administrative bodies such as the IRS.

In one legal reference book I consulted before attempting to answer your question, the list of record-retention requirements for a business runs three large pages of single-spaced listings. If you want to review this listing, go to your county law library and ask the reference librarian for "Employment Law Compliance for New Businesses" by the CEB, then look at pages 6-47 through 6-50.

What you will see is that some records must be kept permanently. For others, the retention period is three years, five years, etc.

As far as tax records, anything reflecting the value of an asset (such as your home) should be kept at least as long as you own the asset plus the post-sale period during which your tax return showing the gain or loss on sale of the asset is subject to audit.