How long to keep financial records?

If you’re anything like me, you want to shred bills and documents as soon as you send the check in the mail or pay online.  You don’t want all that extra clutter hanging around.  While that can be good for some items (junk mail, magazines, etc.) it doesn’t always work for financial documents.  If you own a home, have a credit card, are self-employed, have a job, or all of the above, here is some information about how long to keep your financial records.

Let’s start with home ownership documents.  These include closing statements (your HUD or RESPA, for example).  You’ll want to save that information for at least six years after you purchase the home.  This is important for selling the home (if you do during that time period) because it can affect how much you pay in capital gains tax.  It’s also important to keep any receipts for home improvement projects.  Some could be a tax write-off and others may also affect property taxes and capital gains tax.

If you use your credit card to purchase items that can be a tax deduction, you’ll want to keep your statements for a good seven years.  Otherwise, you can shred the statement once your receipts match what is listed on the statement for the month.

In terms of tax paperwork, it’s important to know that the IRS has three years from your filing date to audit your return if it suspects good faith errors.  They have up to six years to challenge a return if they suspect you underreported your gross income by 25% or more.  So you’ll want to keep all your tax returns for at least six years.  You have three years once you file if you find a mistake on it and file an amended return for a refund.

You can easily get rid of regular bills once you see the check against it has cleared.  You will want to keep any receipts or bills for more expensive purchases, such as jewelry, computers, televisions, etc.  This you’ll want to save for insurance purposes.

You can get rid of paycheck stubs once you compare it against the W-2 you receive for all your work the previous year.  If everything matches up, toss the original stubs.  If not, you’ll want to request a corrected form from your HR department.

If you have more specific questions about how long to keep certain financial records, your CPA is the best person to speak to, especially if it’s related to tax information.

(view original source here)

Florida Business Says Go Green by Changing the Way You Manage Information

Know when to hold ‘em, store ‘em and throw ‘em! MicroShred says it’s time for new “green” initiatives for managing your records. No matter the size or type of your business, chances are you have boxes full of files stored somewhere and most likely, those files are full of confidential information that will need to be disposed of. All too often those old files end up in our already packed landfills, which is bad for the environment and poses a security problem for your business.

To get a handle on your files in an eco-friendly manner, a shredding plan should be established. Having a workable records management plan that includes document shredding allows businesses to have better information at the right time for better business decisions.

When information is properly managed, businesses benefit from:

• Improved efficiency and productivity. Valuable time and resources will no longer be wasted to locate and retrieve paper files or recreate documents that have been misplaced or lost. More time can be spent on revenue generating tasks.
• Regulatory compliance. Shredding helps businesses comply with records management laws, like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (FACTA). These laws require that certain paper waste including medical records, salary details or personal address details, must legally be disposed of. Such records must be kept up to date and shredded at the proper time.
• Safeguarding vital information. With online access to information you have the advantage of accessing any document, anywhere, at any time, with access limited to specific staff. Critical data will be safe from theft and disasters.

Establishing “green” records management policies will help improve efficiencies in your office as you help to keep our air clean, reduce paper use and preserve water resources.

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Miami, FL 33179

Hard Drive Destruction is Important for Business Security

There comes a time for any business interested in staying current to upgrade hardware around the office. Oftentimes this means moving data from one hard drive to another, leaving motherboards and towers rendered obsolete. One might think all that needs to be done is to simply erase all folders and files from the drive, then click on the trash icon to wipe out. Private information gone forever and the company is safe, right? Not necessarily.

Old Computers = Security Risk

Even if you clean out the hard drives of old computers to ensure sensitive data is no longer accessible, you may not completely get the job done. To a novice user, a computer with no visible folders and files may appear clean, but an experienced programmer or hacker can work diligently to uncover fragments of data, including financial information like bank routing numbers and consumer identification, which can be used to commit theft. Just as nothing truly disappears on the Web thanks to archival sites, there is always the chance something can be unearthed. Forensic computer scientists, for example, employ such tactics to gather evidence when it appears wrongdoers are trying to cover their tracks.

The Solution? Shredding!

How does a business ensure the security of its interests, employees, and clients? Shredding! MicroShred offers hard drive destruction services which take invalid drives and other hardware – and even disks and flash drives – and grind them until they are totally unreadable. Destruction is the best method for protection if you are concerned about sensitive data remaining where it can be found.

To learn more about adding peace of mind to your business, contact MicroShred to inquire about our hard drive shredding services. We offer sound and discreet shredding with a guarantee that your data is destroyed for good.

New Video: Computer Hard Drive Shredding Process

OCR Boosting Security Enforcement

The health care industry can soon expect a greater emphasis on enforcing the HIPAA security rule than in years past.

That’s the message that Susan McAndrew, deputy director for privacy at the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights, delivered May 11 at the Safeguarding Health Information conference in Washington. OCR sponsored the conference with the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Federal enforcement of the security rule transitioned in 2009 from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to the OCR. The office continues to build expertise on the security rule, but much of the transition work is done, McAndrew says. “Transitions are always longer than you expect.”

To boost enforcement of the security rule, OCR has added investigators in 10 regional offices, McAndrew notes. “We’re hoping that with additional feet on the ground, we’ll be able to do many more security cases as the year moves forward.”

The HITECH Act links privacy and security–and enforcement of both HIPAA rules–enabling regulators to look at these issues from a more holistic viewpoint, McAndrew says. As the electronic world moves into the clinical side, the health care industry increasingly will find that privacy and security issues collide, she contends. “Without a sound security policy, privacy will just be a principle.”

Consequently, 2010 is when the industry will really start to see a realization of HITECH’s privacy and security initiatives enacted in 2009, McAndrew says. “We’re hoping to move security to the forefront and make it a real partner with privacy in our enforcement.”

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Corporations must protect data, says CMY Cylab report

Corporate boards of directors and senior management aren’t adequately involved in the privacy and security of their computer systems and data, according to a report issued Tuesday by Carnegie Mellon University’s CyLab.

The report found that while company boards are taking risk management seriously, there remains a gap in understanding the relationship between information technology, or IT, and risk management. The report is based on the results from 66 respondents to its survey at the board or senior executive level from Fortune 1000 companies. It builds on CyLab’s first survey, conducted in 2008.

“The survey results indicate that boards and senior executives need to be more actively involved in the governance of the privacy and security of their computer systems and data, but this year’s study shows some important areas of improvement,” said Jody Westby, a distinguished fellow in CMU’s CyLab, and CEO of Global Cyber Risk LLC, in a statement.

The report found that a majority of companies don’t have full-time privacy, security and risk executives responsible for those issues. Respondents indicated that corporate boards reviewing privacy and security issues weren’t focusing on activities that would help protect the organization from high-risk situations, such as reputational or financial losses due to breaches of personal identity information or theft of confidential or proprietary information.

Medical files found in trash

PORT ST. LUCIE, FL — Police on turned up medical files in a trash bin near University Medical Clinics that contained information that could be used to commit identity theft, a police spokesman said Wednesday.

Police determined the files, which contained information including patient names, Social Security numbers, phone numbers and addresses, had been discarded from University Medical Clinics in the 1800 block of Southeast Port St. Lucie Boulevard, said Officer Tom Nichols, police spokesman.

A man identified by Nichols as a high ranking official with the company indicated an employee had thrown the files way.

“A garbage bag full of medical records is not an oversight,” Nichols said.

Dr. Samuel Sadow, CEO of University Medical Clinics, said Wednesday he didn’t think any patient information had been compromised.

“We’re very concerned about it and we’re doing our own internal investigation,” Sadow said.

Nichols said the records were returned to the office.

Nichols said the files initially were found by a woman acting on an anonymous tip that they’d been discarded. That woman then notified police of her discovery.

(Read original article here)

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MARYLAND BANK DUMPS IDENTITIES INTO TRASH

ABC2 News – Rodgers Forge, Maryland

ABC2 News investigators recently discovered that an M&T Bank branch in Rodgers Forge, Maryland improperly disposed of documents that should have been shredded. These documents included social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, bank accounts, and other sensitive information that should not have wound up in the dumpster. When contacted by the media M&T stated that the discovery was a clear violation of corporate policy, and pledged to conduct an extensive internal investigation…

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