Individual Income Tax
Keeping Records
- What records should I keep for Wisconsin tax purposes, and how long should I keep them?
What records should I keep for Wisconsin tax purposes, and how long should I keep them?
You must keep accurate records to verify items of income, deductions, and credits claimed on your income tax return or credit claim (for example, homestead credit or farmland preservation credit). Maintain records in a manner that will allow the Department to determine your correct tax liability if requested during an audit.
You should keep copies of your tax returns and credit claims as part of your tax records. Following is a listing of some of the tax records you should maintain:
Income: Keep Forms W-2 (wage statements), Forms 1099, financial statements, bank statements, contracts, and other documents to verify income reported on your returns.
Deductions and Credits: Keep canceled checks, bank statements, paid invoices, sales receipts, Forms 1098 (mortgage interest), loan documents, financial and legal documents, mileage logs, appointment books, credit card statements, and other documents to verify expenses and credits claimed on your returns.
Generally, you must keep your tax records at least until the statute of limitations expires for the tax return on which any of those items of income, deductions, or credits appear. Usually this is 4 years from the due date of the return or the date filed, whichever is later.
If you underreport your income on your return by 25% or more, the statute of limitations is 6 years from the due date of the return or the date filed, whichever is later. If the return is false or fraudulent, or if no return is filed, there is no statute of limitations and departmental action can generally be brought at any time.
There are times you should keep records longer:
- You should keep records relating to property you own as long as they are needed to figure the basis of the original or replacement property and for 4 years after a return is filed on which you report any sale or other disposition of the property.
- Net operating losses may be carried forward up to 15 years. Taxable years which are otherwise closed to adjustment may be audited for purposes of determining the correctness of a net operating loss which is claimed as an offset against income in an open year. If you are claiming a net operating loss, you should keep your records for the year of the loss and all subsequent years in which you are claiming a net operating loss carryforward. These records should be kept until 4 years after the unextended due date or the date filed, whichever is later, of the return on which the last of the net operating loss carryforward was claimed.
You should retain a copy of your tax returns indefinitely.
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
WISCONSIN DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE
Customer Service and Education Bureau
P.O. Box 8949
Madison, WI 53708-8949
Phone: (608) 266-2772
Fax: (608) 267-1030
E-Mail Additional Questions
Last updated December 21, 2007