How long to keep which records, how to set a retention schedule in an afternoon, when a legal hold overrides it, and how to dispose of records securely, with official sources for the countries we verified.
Free to print and adaptLast reviewed October 2026
Why it matters both ways
Keep too little and you cannot prove what you did. Keep too much and you carry risk for nothing.
Too short: you cannot answer an audit, a tax inspection, a funder’s question or a legal claim.
Too long: data protection law in many countries requires you to keep personal information no longer than you need it. In the UK, the ICO says it is up to you how long that is, but you must be able to justify it, review what you hold and delete or anonymise what you no longer need.
And a security point: records you no longer hold cannot be stolen in a breach or caught up in a request.
Set a schedule in an afternoon
A retention schedule is a table. It does not need to be perfect to be useful.
List the types of record you hold (not every file), and for each one decide:
Owner: the person who decides and acts.
Where it is kept: every place, including email, shared drives, paper and old systems.
Trigger: the event that starts the clock, such as the end of the financial year, the end of employment or the closure of a case. Getting the trigger right matters as much as the period.
Period: the longest of the rules that apply: tax law, regulator, funder contract, professional rules and your own need. Write down the source of each period.
Action at the end: delete, anonymise or archive.
Starting rows for a retention schedule. Fill in the periods from the official sources for your country.
Record type
Trigger
Source for the period
Financial records
End of the financial year they relate to
Your tax authority
Donation and tax receipts
End of the year the gift was received
Your tax or charity regulator
Governance
While the organization exists
Your charity or company regulator
Staff records
End of employment
Employment and tax law
Case and client files
Case closure or last contact
Funder contract, professional rules, privacy law
Grant files
End of the grant
The grant agreement
Supporter records
Last meaningful contact
Privacy law, your own policy
Grant agreements often set their own retention periods for project records. Check yours, and use the longest rule that applies.
Periods depend on the country, the type of organization and the record. These are the rules we checked at the source.
United StatesInternal Revenue Service
Generally three years from filing for records supporting a federal tax return, with longer periods in some cases. Employment tax records for at least four years after the tax was due or paid.
Local governments usually follow retention schedules set by their state. Official source
Copies of official donation receipts: two years from the end of the calendar year of the gift. Ledgers, financial statements, source documents and T3010 returns: six years from the end of the fiscal year they cover. Minutes and governing documents: indefinitely.
Destroying records early needs the Minister’s written permission (Form T137). Official source
United Kingdom (limited companies)HM Revenue and Customs, on GOV.UK
Company and accounting records: six years from the end of the last company financial year they relate to, or longer in some cases.
Data protection law sets no fixed periods for personal data: you decide, and must be able to justify it. Official source
New ZealandInland Revenue
Business records, including electronic records: at least seven years.
We have not yet verified official retention rules for Mexico, Argentina, Armenia, India, the Philippines or Australia, so we do not summarise them here. Ask your accountant or check with your national tax authority and charity or company regulator.
Legal holds: when you must stop deleting
A legal hold overrides your schedule. Deleting under a hold can be far worse than keeping too much.
When a lawsuit, investigation, audit, complaint or records request is reasonably expected, keep everything relevant, even if your schedule says it is due for deletion. In US federal courts, for example, Rule 37(e) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure lets a court act when electronically stored information that should have been preserved in anticipation of litigation is lost because a party failed to take reasonable steps to keep it.
Identify what is relevant.Which records, and who holds them, including email, chat, phones and paper.
Tell those people in writing.What to keep, that the hold overrides the schedule, and whom to ask.
Suspend automatic deletion.Email retention rules, chat auto-delete and scheduled clean-ups, for those records.
Keep a record of the hold.What it covers, who was told and when.
Release it in writing.Only when your adviser confirms it can end. Then return to the schedule.
Deleting a file is not the same as destroying the information.
Paper. Shred with a cross-cut shredder, or use a disposal company that gives you a certificate of destruction.
Devices. Computers, phones, drives and printers with storage need sanitising before reuse, repair, sale or disposal. NIST SP 800-88 Rev. 2 (September 2025) and the UK National Cyber Security Centre’s guidance explain how. The NCSC notes the right method depends on whether the device was encrypted, which is one more reason to encrypt from the start.
Cloud services. Deleting in the application may leave copies in backups for a period. Ask the vendor how long, and get confirmation of deletion when you leave.
Keep a disposal log. What was destroyed, when, how and by whom: not the contents. It shows you followed your schedule.
Archive what has lasting value
Some records should be kept for good, but out of the way.
Governing documents, minutes and records of your organization’s history often have lasting value, and some laws require them to be kept. Public bodies may also have duties under public records law: in the UK, the National Archives explains disposal and transfer under the Public Records Act.
Store archives read-only, with restricted access and a note of what they contain.
A schedule nobody follows is worse than none, because it suggests you are doing something you are not.
An annual disposal dayEach record owner applies the schedule, logs what was destroyed and reports any holds.
Automate where you canMany systems can delete or flag records by age. Set them to match the schedule, and suspend them for holds.
Review the scheduleEach year, and whenever the law, your funders or your systems change.
Sources
Where this comes from.
Primary sources only: governments, regulators, standards bodies and the vendors themselves. Each was opened and checked on 18 October 2026. If something here no longer matches the source, the source wins; please tell us at hello@moraph.org.