Dump The File Cabinet And Scan Your Important Papers

[Peaches]

Dump the File Cabinet and Scan Your Important Papers

Lincoln Spector

"You can't get rid of all your important papers, but with a shredder and a scanner, you can reduce them to a handful. Of course, you have to know what you should keep, what you should scan, what you should shred, and what can safely be tossed into the recycling.

You should keep your original of birth and death certificates, passports and other citizenship documents, and your current will. Because of something called the Best Evidence Rule, you should also keep contracts in their original form. Courts will usually accept a copy of a contract, but if there are two conflicting versions of a contract, the one that isn't a copy carries greater weight.

What about tax records? Two different accountants told me that a scanned document wouldn't be a problem with the IRS. But when I called the IRS, a customer service representative recommended I "keep the original forms for three years."

You might still want to scan them for backup and for easier reference, especially if you and your papers are going to be physically separated for a long period of time."

Full article at PCWorld - http://www.pcworld.com/article/165750/dump...ant_papers.html