Contribution Records retention guidelines

by Lorena
(Richmond, VA)

How long do I need to retain records of contributions to the church? The church I work for has been saving them forever, including the numbered donation envelopes. I would like to destroy all the envelopes and as much of the other records as practical.

Thank you.

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Mar 02, 2017
 Donor Record retention
by: Bill OConnell

Different men and women of goodwill disagree. I believe 3 years are plenty since the IRS ability to audit taxpayers virtually disappears at that point.

HOWEVER, be sensitive if there is personal financial information in those files (particularly copies of checks). Unprotected files containing this type of data violates the law in most states. If this is the case destroy all these records within a couple of months - after the banking transactions have been reconciled.

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