Record Retention is a reference on how long US businesses keep each type of record. We publish the federal periods row by row, with the source and the date we checked it, so a company can build a retention schedule from them. Ingenious Digital LLC publishes the site.
Who the site is for
The site is written for owners, office managers, bookkeepers and HR and operations staff at US businesses, and for the advisers who help them. A company of any size can use the federal periods. The records check is for companies with 30 or more full-time employees that hold operational records.
What you will find here
Start with the record retention schedule for every period in one place, or the business records guide for how the groups fit together. Pages cover tax, payroll, personnel, Form I-9 and OSHA records, with a policy template and a destruction checklist.
How we check information
Every retention period comes from a federal statute, a regulation or an agency page. Each row shows its citation, a link and the date we checked it. Pages carry an update date. A dated page records the review at that time. It does not promise that a rule will stay the same.
When a rule gives a period and no start date, we say so and do not guess. When we add a recommendation, we label it as ours. We do not invent customer stories, approval rates or payout examples. Illustrations are labeled “Example”.
What the site does not cover
The schedule uses US federal rules only. It has no state periods, no industry schedules and no rules for government contractors yet. State law can set longer periods. This site gives general information and is not legal, tax or accounting advice. Check a decision to destroy records with your own lawyer or accountant.
How the site is funded
We refer companies whose records may qualify to an AI data buyer through a referral link. The buyer pays us a referral fee only after a company we refer has its data transferred and approved. This referral link is the only commercial relationship the site has. We have no affiliate partners yet.
The fee gives us a financial interest in companies whose data is transferred and approved. The tax, payroll, personnel, I-9 and OSHA pages carry no referral block, because those records are not on our may-be-licensable list. Our disclosure explains the relationship. The records check gives an initial fit result only. It does not establish approval, value or signing authority.
Next steps
Read the disclosure and the privacy page before you use the records check.