The accountant plays an important role in your personal or financial life. They help to collect and organize financial information whether you are a customer or a business. Your personal accountant may perform several duties from collecting and analyzing your account information to helping to lodge your tax return.
If you are an accounting professional, you understand how pertinent and sensitive your client’s information is. After all, yours is an industry built on professionalism, accuracy and trust. It can damage your reputation if your client’s records were not kept confidential. You may even be in breach of data security laws.
That is why secure document destruction is important. It helps you to manage your records, as well as protecting you and your client. Unlike shredding your documents yourself, we can help you destroy your documents quickly and effectively. You will save on labour costs of removing staples, folders or plastic sleeves. After your documents are destroyed, you will receive a certificate of destruction for your peace of mind.
There are different types of information that you need to ensure if part of a compliant document destruction policy:
– Bank account records
– Credit Card Information
– Tax return information
– Payments to employees and other organizations
– Financial statements including balance sheets, and profit and loss statements
The amount of time that you are required to keep these financial documents varies according to the document and its function. It is important to destroy the documents in a timely fashion or you may find yourself in breach of the data protection act, which guides how you collect and handle personal information.
Before you destroy your documents, you should keep in mind the general timeframe for record keeping. Please note that if you destroy the documents you are allowed to, this may be a criminal offence.
This a general timeframe for keeping documents (please note that these are guidelines):
For financial and accounting records: seven years is the minimum period.
For taxation records: five years is the minimum period.
Minutes of meetings, members and other corporate records: five years is the minimum period.
For assets that are subject to capital gains tax: five years after the disposal of the asset. The accountant
