You're supposed to keep your Tax Records for 3 to 7 years depending on the Tax record.
If you you file a claim for a loss from worthless securities or bad debt deduction then you keep your Tax Records for up to 7 years.
And if you file a claim for credit or refund after you file your return you should keep your Tax Records for 3 years from the date you filed your original return or 2 years from the date you paid the tax, whichever is later
As a rule of thumb, you should retain records that support items shown on your individual tax return until the statute of limitations runs out generally three years from the due date of the return or the date you filed, whichever is later.
Generally, the IRS can include returns filed within the last three years in an audit.
If they identify a substantial error, the IRS may add additional years.
They usually don't go back more than the last six years.
You can shred and dispose of those supporting records and keep the copy of the return once those statute of limitations have passed, as long as you can prove a return was filed.
The odds of the IRS asking about a years-old tax return are low, but it can happen.
The statute of limitations is six years if your return includes a “substantial understatement of income.”
Generally, this means that you have left off more than 25 percent of your gross income.
IRS first-time penalty abatement, otherwise known as one-time forgiveness, is a long-standing IRS program.
It offers amnesty to taxpayers who, although otherwise textbook taxpayers, have made an error in their tax filing or payment and are now subject to significant penalties or fines.
Put simply, the statute of limitations on federal tax debt is 10 years from the date of tax assessment.
This means the IRS should forgive tax debt after 10 years.
The IRS can go back to any unfiled year and assess a tax deficiency, along with penalties.
However, in practice, the IRS rarely goes past the past six years for non-filing enforcement.
Also, most delinquent return and SFR enforcement actions are completed within 3 years after the due date of the return.
Things that can trigger an IRS audit include.
You didn't report all of your income.
You took the home office deduction.
You reported several years of business losses.
You had unusually large business expenses.
You didn't report all of your stock trades.
You didn't report cryptocurrency payments.
You made large charitable contributions.