The CRA answer is six years. The part almost everyone gets wrong is six years from when. Not from the day you filed. It runs from the close of the final tax year a record covers, which for a personal return is the calendar year. Get that wrong and you shred a record a year early.
Every rule below was confirmed against the Canada Revenue Agency on 1 August 2026.
Key takeaways
- Keep every tax record for six years from the end of the last tax year it relates to, not six years from the filing date.
- For a personal return the tax year is the calendar year, so 2019 records could be destroyed from 1 January 2026, and 2020 records can be destroyed from 1 January 2027.
- If you filed a return late, the six years run from the date you actually filed it, not from the tax year.
- Records that affect the sale, liquidation or wind-up of a business, including the share registry and long-term property records, must be kept indefinitely.
- Records must be kept at your place of business or your residence in Canada unless the CRA gives you written permission otherwise, and destroying them early without permission can be prosecuted.
How long to keep tax records in Canada: the six-year retention period
The CRA states it plainly: you must keep all required records and supporting documents for a period of six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to. That covers the tax return itself, every supporting document behind it, and your notices of assessment. The tax year is the calendar year for individuals and the fiscal period for corporations.
You keep tax records for six years for almost every filing you make, because the same rule runs across the Income Tax Act, the Excise Tax Act (which covers GST/HST), the Employment Insurance Act, the Canada Pension Plan and the Excise Act, 2001. One rule, most of your filings.
Here is what that means in practice for a personal return, assuming you filed on time and have no objection or appeal outstanding.
| Tax year | Keep the tax record until | Tax documents can be destroyed from |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 31 December 2025 | 1 January 2026 |
| 2020 | 31 December 2026 | 1 January 2027 |
| 2021 | 31 December 2027 | 1 January 2028 |
| 2022 | 31 December 2028 | 1 January 2029 |
| 2023 | 31 December 2029 | 1 January 2030 |
| 2024 | 31 December 2030 | 1 January 2031 |
| 2025 | 31 December 2031 | 1 January 2032 |
So if you are clearing out a filing cabinet in 2026, the income tax records for the 2019 tax year and earlier are fair game. The 2020 records stay until January 2027. You can confirm the underlying rule on the CRA's page for where to keep your records and for how long.
What counts as an income tax record
The CRA defines a record broadly. Records include ledgers, journals, financial statements, returns, correspondence, charts and tables. A supporting document is the proof behind an entry, and the CRA may ask to see it years later, so save every record supporting a deduction or credit you claimed.
Which tax documents should you keep
For a personal return, keep the return itself, every notice of assessment and reassessment, and the proof behind anything you claimed. In practice that means:
- T4 slips for employment income, and T4A slips for pension, commission or other income
- T5 slips for investment income and T3 slips for trust income
- RRSP contribution receipts
- T2202 tuition certificates
- Medical expense receipts
- Charitable donation receipts
- Child care expense receipts
- Rental income and expense records
- Self-employment invoices and the receipts behind every expense claimed
- Bank statements, credit card statements and cancelled cheques
A slip received electronically counts the same as paper. If you claimed it, keep the document that proves it.
Electronic records and digital copies
Electronic records count exactly the same as paper. The CRA expects you to keep documents created by computerized systems, including accounting software, point of sale systems, internet-based systems and tax return preparation software, alongside your traditional paper file. A scanned receipt is a record. A shoebox of paper is a record. Neither format is exempt from the six-year rule.
One line in the CRA guidance deserves more attention than it gets: you stay responsible for adequate financial records even when a bookkeeper, accountant or software provider holds them for you. If you later part ways, the obligation stays with you. For any business owner, that is an argument for exporting your own copy once a year.
When the CRA rule runs longer than six years
The six-year CRA rule has real exceptions, and two of them catch people out regularly. In each case below, the clock attaches to the record itself rather than to the calendar.
| Situation | How long to keep the record |
|---|---|
| You filed the return late | Six years from the date you filed it, not from the tax year |
| You filed a notice of objection or an appeal | Keep all related documents until the latest of: the objection or appeal being resolved, the deadline for any further appeal passing, or the six-year period ending |
| The CRA asks you in writing to keep them longer | As long as the CRA specifies, told to you in person or by registered mail |
| A non-incorporated business closes | Six years after the tax year in which the business ended |
| A corporation is dissolved | Two years after the date of dissolution |
| Corporations amalgamate or merge | The new corporation keeps each predecessor's records on the same six-year clock |
| You are the legal representative of someone who has died | Until you receive a clearance certificate to distribute the property |
The objection row is the one worth reading twice. It is not six years from the day the dispute ends, which is what several guides state. It is the latest of three dates, and if your objection is resolved quickly the plain six-year period is often still the one that governs.
The clearance certificate row matters if you are settling an estate. You apply on Form TX19, and until it comes back you keep everything. We cover that process in detail in our guide to the CRA clearance certificate for an estate.
GST/HST and payroll records
Six years is not only an income tax rule. It also covers GST/HST under the Excise Tax Act, payroll under the Employment Insurance Act and the Canada Pension Plan, and the Excise Act, 2001. Two GST/HST specifics are worth knowing.
If you issue a tax adjustment note for GST/HST to a pension entity, you keep the related records for six years from the day you issued the note, not from the tax year. And if you have not filed a GST/HST return for a reporting period that ended more than six years ago, you are still required to file that return and to retain the records supporting it. That six years generally begins after the last year a record may be required for reporting purposes, so an unfiled period keeps its own paperwork alive.
Payroll follows the same six years. For an employer in Whitby or Oshawa that covers the payroll register, the timesheets behind it and every remittance confirmation.
Every tax record and business document you keep indefinitely
Some business records have no expiry date at all. Nothing ever releases them. The CRA requires you to keep records and supporting documents indefinitely when they concern long-term acquisition and disposal of property, the share registry, or other historical information that would affect the sale, liquidation or wind-up of the business.
For an incorporated business in Durham Region that means the minute book, share registry and certificates, articles of incorporation, and the purchase records for property the company still owns. A dissolved corporation keeps its other records two years after dissolution, but permanent records sit outside that clock.
The same applies personally. If you bought a rental property in 2004, the purchase document is not a six-year record. You will need it to prove the adjusted cost base the day you sell, which could be thirty years later.
Where the CRA says you must keep your records in Canada
This rule surprises people who moved their bookkeeping to the cloud. You must keep records at your place of business or your residence in Canada unless you have written permission from the CRA to keep them elsewhere. The CRA is explicit that records outside Canada, accessed electronically from here, do not count as being kept in Canada.
If your software stores data abroad, you either arrange access that satisfies the CRA or write to your tax services office for permission. Any copies must be true copies, readable by CRA software and available in Canada. For a Whitby or Oshawa business on a US-hosted package that is worth raising with your bookkeeper.
Destroying a tax document early: what the CRA requires
You can destroy a record early, but only with written permission first. Fill out Form T137, Request for Destruction of Records, or apply in writing to your tax services office. The CRA is blunt about the alternative: if you destroy paper or electronic records without permission, you may be prosecuted.
One limit. That permission only covers records the CRA's own legislation requires. It cannot authorize destroying records demanded by other federal, provincial, territorial or municipal law, and corporate paperwork often carries its own deadlines.
How long a Durham business keeps its business records
Take an incorporated contractor in Whitby with a 31 December year end, cleaning out storage in 2026.
- Every record from the 2019 corporate year and earlier can go, provided the returns were filed on time and nothing is under objection.
- The 2020 through 2025 files stay, because the 2020 six-year period does not end until 31 December 2026.
- The minute book, share registry and the purchase document for the shop the company owns stay regardless of year, because each one is a permanent record.
- If a GST/HST return for an old period was never filed, the obligation to file it and to keep records supporting it does not expire with the six years.
That last point catches more owner-managed businesses than every other exception combined, and no amount of tidy record keeping elsewhere fixes it. An unfiled return keeps its own clock running, and every record that would support it has to survive with it.
We handle bookkeeping, corporate filings and CRA correspondence for owner-managed businesses across Oshawa, Whitby, Ajax, Pickering, Clarington, Bowmanville and Uxbridge. If you have a storage room of boxes and no idea which years are safe to destroy, book a free 30 minute consultation.
This article is for general information only and does not replace professional advice. The rules here were confirmed against the Canada Revenue Agency as of 1 August 2026 and can change. Retention periods under other tax laws and statutes may be longer than the CRA's. Always confirm with a qualified CPA before destroying records.
