At the free shred events, H&R Block will advise taxpayers on which documents to discard and which ones to keep.

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Courtesy of H&R Block

MIAMI – Three million Americans annually report tax identity theft and the IRS has paid out an estimated $5 billion in fraudulent returns for a single year.

While cyber attacks pose a major threat, not all attackers are found online. They can sift through trash and recycling bins to hunt for personal information like a name, address and social security number and use what they’ve found to file fraudulent tax returns.

To help prevent this personal information getting into the wrong hands, H&R Block will host a free shred event on Saturday, April 1 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at 11489 SW 40 Street in Miami and 4683 S. University Drive, Ste. 9, in Davie. H&R Block will offer advice on which documents to keep and for how long.

“Tax and other financial documents contain some of your most important information. We are committed to protecting personal data ourselves and helping taxpayers protect their own information,” said Enid Echevarria, district general manager at H&R Block. “This shred event is the perfect opportunity not only for taxpayers to safeguard their own information, but to learn best practices and other ways to protect themselves from tax identity theft.”

During tax season, taxpayers often question what tax and financial documents they should shred, discard or keep.

“The good news is that taxpayers usually need to keep only a few types of documents indefinitely,” said Echevarria.

These can include records of business income and expenses for as long as you own the business, property sales that resulted in net-operating or capital losses and records of home improvements or other expenditures that establish basis in a home.

Taxpayers should keep most of their taxrelated documents for at least three years.

Three years from the return due date is generally the timeframe a tax return is open for review and a taxpayer could need to substantiate information on the tax return. This kind of information may include:
• Proof of charitable contributions
• Bank statements
• Printed paystubs
• Utility bills
• Brokerage statements
• Medical and dental expense receipts
• W-2s, 1099s and other information documents
• Tax-reporting statements like property or real estate taxes
• Closing Disclosure statements (or HUD-1 for older sales)
• Mortgage statements
• 1095s and certificates of exemption from the Affordable Care Act
• Retirement savings annual reports and
• Annual brokerage statements.

Though taxpayers are advised to save their tax returns a minimum of three years, there are good reasons to save it longer than that.

For example, if it has business schedules (such as Schedule C) or other information they may want to refer to in the future, they should keep it.

“Ultimately, whether or not you keep supporting documents, and how long you keep them, depends on whether you used them for your tax return or need them for other purposes,” said Echevarria. “For instance, if you’re not deducting rental expenses or claiming a home office deduction, you probably don’t need to save utility bills.”

Taxpayers should keep these tax records and supporting financial documents safe. They can do so with MyBlock, which has banklevel encryption technology, multi-layer authentication and other important safeguards. MyBlock users can also get free access to tax advice and year-round planning tools, prepare their taxes online and schedule an appointment at a local H&R Block office.

For more information or to schedule an appointment, call 305-221-0579 (office in Miami) or 954-680-6839 (office in Davie).