{"id":11588,"date":"2018-02-01T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-02-01T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hwsmarketindev.wpengine.com\/2018\/02\/01\/blog-how-long-should-you-retain-payroll-records\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T03:55:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T03:55:09","slug":"blog-how-long-should-you-retain-payroll-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homeworksolutions.com\/es\/2018\/02\/01\/blog-how-long-should-you-retain-payroll-records\/","title":{"rendered":"How long should you retain payroll records?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Employers must exert a certain amount of time and resources to properly retain their income tax records. But these aren\u2019t the only documents you need to maintain. Retention of your organization\u2019s payroll records is also important. This goes for both corporate and household employment.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Best Practice<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most employers must withhold federal income, Social Security and Medicare taxes from their employees\u2019 paychecks, this becomes more of a choice in household employment depending on the state in which you live. Either way, you must keep records relating to these taxes for at least four years after the due date of an employee\u2019s personal income tax return (generally, April 15) for the year in which the payment was made. This is often referred to as the \u201crecords-in-general rule.\u201d<\/p>\n

These records include your Employer Identification Number, as well as your employees\u2019 names, addresses, occupations and Social Security numbers. You should also keep for four years the total amounts and dates of payments of compensation and amounts withheld for taxes or otherwise \u2014including reported tips and the fair market value of noncash payments.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also important to track and retain the compensation amounts subject to withholding for federal income, Social Security and Medicare taxes, and the corresponding amounts withheld for each tax (and the date withheld if withholding occurred on a day different from the payment date). Where applicable, note the reason(s) why total compensation and taxable amount for each tax rate are different.<\/p>\n

Other data and documents<\/strong><\/p>\n

A variety of other data and documents fall under the records-in-general rule. Examples include:<\/p>\n