Household paperwork in Canada: what to keep, for how long, and where

Most households keep paper in one of two ways: everything, forever, in a box nobody opens, or nothing, until the day a document is needed. Both fail at the same moment, when someone asks for proof.

A better system is smaller than either. It rests on one federal rule, a short list of documents that never expire, and a backup habit. This note sets it out for Canada. It is general information, not tax or legal advice.

The rule that decides most of it: six years

The Canada Revenue Agency asks individuals to keep tax documents and records for at least six years. That applies even if you filed online and even if a form told you not to attach your receipts. The CRA can ask for them later to check what you claimed.

What the CRA says to keep:

• a copy of each tax return you filed;
• every notice of assessment or reassessment;
• receipts and other proof for deductions and credits: official receipts, but also cancelled cheques, bank statements and anything else that shows what you paid.

The CRA's business records page adds the detail that matters when a year is unusual. The six years run from the end of the last tax year the records relate to. If you file a return late, they run from the day you file it. If you dispute an assessment, keep the records until the dispute is fully resolved or the six years end, whichever is later.

In practice, that means one folder per tax year. When a new year's folder goes in, the oldest one that has passed six years can come out, unless something in it still relates to a later year.

Records that relate to a later year

The phrase "the last tax year they relate to" is the one to read slowly. Some papers support a calculation you will only make years from now.

The clearest examples are records of what you paid for something you may sell later, such as an investment or a property, and what you spent improving it. Those papers relate to the year you report the sale, so they need to be kept until six years after that year. File them in a folder of their own, labelled by the asset, not by year.

Registered accounts: keep your own tally

For a TFSA, the CRA is blunt: keep and maintain your own records, and track your contributions closely. Financial institutions report a year's transactions to the CRA by the end of February of the following year, so the contribution room the CRA shows can be months out of date. An excess amount is taxed at 1 per cent per month for as long as it stays in the account.

A simple running list works: date, account, amount in, amount out. Keep it with the year-end statements from each institution. Do the same for RRSP contributions and their receipts.

Documents that never expire

A small set of papers has no retention period, because you may need them at any point in your life. Keep them together, in one place that is secure and that someone you trust knows about:

• birth, marriage and citizenship or immigration documents;
• your Social Insurance Number record. Service Canada no longer issues plastic SIN cards; a confirmation now comes as a letter, in paper or digital format. Plastic cards already issued can still be used. Service Canada's page is clear that you are responsible for protecting your number, so keep the card or letter at home rather than in your wallet;
• passports and other government identification, and their renewal dates written somewhere you will see them;
• wills, powers of attorney and insurance policies, with the name of whoever holds the originals.

Paper or scans

Scanning cuts the box down to a folder, and the CRA accepts electronic records. Its guidance on electronic record keeping sets two conditions worth knowing even for a household:

• electronic records must be kept in a readable electronic format for the full retention period, even if you also keep the paper;
• backing them up is your responsibility.

If a file lives on one laptop only, it is not really kept.

A backup habit that takes ten minutes

Get Cyber Safe, the federal government's public awareness campaign, gives plain advice on backups:

• back up regularly. If your external drive does not back up automatically, set a reminder to do it at least once a week;
• for extra peace of mind, consider backing up to two different storage devices;
• protect the backups with passwords or encryption wherever possible;
• keep backup storage separate from your computer, even away from home, so one theft or one fire does not take both.

A workable version for a household: scanned documents in one cloud folder, arranged by year and by the "never expires" folder, plus a weekly copy to an external drive that lives in a drawer, not beside the computer.

A one-page system

1. Inbox. One tray or folder where every new document lands. Empty it once a month.
2. This year. A folder for the current tax year: receipts, statements, slips as they arrive.
3. Past six years. One folder per year. Each spring, after you file, add the new year and review the oldest.
4. Assets. One folder per investment, property or major purchase, kept until six years after the year it is sold.
5. Never expires. Identity and life documents, secured.
6. Backup. A cloud copy and a weekly drive copy of everything scanned.

When a folder passes its six years and nothing in it relates to a later year, shred the paper rather than recycling it whole. It carries the same personal details that you protected for six years.

Drafted with AI assistance.

Sources

1. Canada Revenue Agency — How long should you keep your income tax records canada.ca
2. Canada Revenue Agency — Where to keep your records, how long to keep them and how to request permission to destroy them early canada.ca
3. Canada Revenue Agency — Excess TFSA amounts canada.ca
4. Canada Revenue Agency — Electronic record keeping (IC05-1) canada.ca
5. Service Canada — Social Insurance Number canada.ca
6. Get Cyber Safe (Government of Canada) — Storage and backup getcybersafe.gc.ca

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