How long do you have to keep payslips?

[ravenAK]

Sorry, v boring question. De-cluttering!

Given we both have regular salaries & all the info will be on a computer somewhere, do I really need 6 years' worth bursting loose from a drop file? Could I just keep most recent over 6 months - that'd be enough if applying for new mortgage etc, surely?

you should get an end of year summary (p11?) so you only need to keep them.

I think that any mortgage firm will want three months worth, but I'd check before chucking the rest away in case I'm wrong.

You definitely don't need six years worth.

You don't need the payslips for each month - I'd just keep the last year plus the P60's (or last month of the tax year) payslips for the other years which will have total YTD figure on them.

Thank you! Have been hoarding due to combination of natural pack rat tendencies & dad who insists all financial docs (to the extent of receipts from Tesco, in his case) be kept safely filed for 6 years...

HMRC have the power to go back 6 years into your affairs for tax purposes, so I always have six years of paperwork, payslips, P60s, bank statements etc on hand, if they decide to do a random investigation. They have recently got increased powers to do this, and may well start doing so...so yes, 6 years paperwork will save you the hassle if HMRC decode to do a dawn raid!

sorry, decide to do a dawn raid. Have just completed tax return, so coding on the brain!