A few kinds of paperwork should never be thrown away at all, while several others carry a real, sourced legal retention period -- this page walks through both, plus practical guidance for everything in between.
A sale deed, title deed, encumbrance certificate, mutation record, and property tax receipts should be kept indefinitely and never discarded, even decades after the purchase. Title to land or a building does not expire, and a future buyer, bank, or your own heirs will typically want to trace an unbroken chain of ownership going back many years -- banks and buyers commonly ask for an encumbrance certificate covering the last 13 to 30 years, and a suit to recover possession of immovable property generally has a 12-year limitation period under the Limitation Act's own Article 65 (30 years against government land) -- so a gap in your papers can genuinely complicate a sale or inheritance long after the fact.
The Income-tax Act, 2025 takes effect from 1 April 2026, replacing the 1961 Act, but keeps essentially the same reassessment structure that has long shaped practical retention advice: the tax department's ordinary window to reopen an old assessment is 3 years from the end of the relevant tax year, extendable up to 10 years from the end of that year in specified cases involving larger amounts of escaped income. As practical guidance built on that window, keep your filed returns (ITRs), Form 16/16A, and supporting proof of income and deductions for at least 6-7 years after the relevant year, and longer if you have significant income, foreign assets, or anything under dispute.
If you run a GST-registered business, Section 36 of the CGST Act, 2017 sets a real, specific retention period: you must keep your accounts and records for 72 months (6 years) from the due date of filing the annual return for that financial year. If you are involved in an appeal, revision, or investigation, the law requires you to keep the relevant records for one year after that proceeding is finally disposed of, or for the usual 72-month period, whichever ends later.
No single law fixes one universal retention period for an employee's own personal copies of salary slips, Form 16, appointment letters, relieving letters, or PF/EPF statements. As practical guidance: keep Form 16 for at least 6-7 years to match the income-tax reassessment window described above; keep salary slips for a similar period, noting that employers themselves are separately required to preserve wage records for a shorter 3-5 years under labour rules; and keep every PF/EPF-related document (UAN details, passbook, Form 3A/6A, scheme certificate) for the long term, since these may genuinely be needed decades later at retirement or when claiming a pension -- though a specific statutory citizen-facing '7-year' retention rule for this category could not be independently confirmed and should not be assumed.
Keep every insurance policy document, premium payment receipt, and claim-related correspondence for as long as the policy is active, and for a few years after it lapses or a claim is fully settled -- an insurer may reopen a dispute over a past claim or ask about a disclosure you made (or should have made) about a pre-existing condition. Aadhrix's own Insurance Claim official-route page separately covers the specific timelines that apply once a claim dispute or rejection has actually happened.
As practical guidance tied to the Limitation Act's own default rule: a suit over money due on an ordinary contract, where no more specific period applies, generally has 3 years from when the money became due (Article 113) -- so a sensible minimum is to keep a contract, loan agreement, or large-purchase receipt for at least 3 years after the transaction or relationship fully ends, and longer if any payment or obligation is still outstanding. A rent agreement is best kept until your security deposit is actually returned, and for a few years beyond that as well.
Yes -- keep it permanently. It is part of the title chain that a future buyer, bank, or your own heirs will want to trace, and property title documents are one of the few things that should never be thrown away, however old they are.
A safe practical minimum is 6-7 years, tied to the ordinary reassessment window. If you've had significant income, foreign assets, or property transactions in a given year, consider keeping that year's records longer, since reassessment can in some cases reach back up to 10 years.
No. Section 36 of the CGST Act, 2017 requires you to keep your accounts and records for 72 months (6 years) from the due date of that annual return -- and longer still if you're involved in an appeal, revision, or investigation touching those records.
As long as practical, and at least as long as your Form 16 for the same year -- generally 6-7 years is a reasonable guide, since your employer's own legal obligation to preserve wage records (3-5 years) is shorter than what you personally may still need for a tax or PF matter.
Yes -- especially your claim history and any disclosures you made about a pre-existing condition, since a new insurer or a future claim may reference your past policy, and disputes over past claims can resurface later.
No -- no single statute covers a citizen's own personal document retention as a whole. This page combines genuine, specific retention laws (for tax and GST records) with the Limitation Act's own suit deadlines used as practical reasoning, and reasonable general practice for everything else, like employment and medical records, where no single law fixes a number.
Governing law: Income-tax Act, 2025 (& 1961); CGST Act, 2017, s.36; Limitation Act, 1963
Source: This page blends three different kinds of sourcing and says so plainly: (1) real, specific statutory retention periods -- Section 36 of the CGST Act, 2017 (72 months from the annual return's due date, verified against cbic.gov.in's own hosted Act text) and the Income-tax Act's reassessment window (ordinary 3 years, extendable to 10 years for larger escaped-income cases, verified as substantively unchanged between the 1961 Act's Section 149 and the Income-tax Act, 2025's reassessment provisions, effective 1 April 2026); (2) the Limitation Act, 1963's own suit deadlines (Article 65's 12-year period, Article 113's 3-year default), used here as practical reasoning for a citizen-retention rule of thumb, not because the Limitation Act itself mandates document retention; and (3) reasonable general practice where no single law fixes a citizen-facing number at all -- most notably employment records and medical/insurance records. A commonly-repeated claim of a specific statutory '7-year' EPF/pension document-retention requirement for an individual could NOT be independently confirmed in this research and is flagged rather than asserted as fact.
This is general information about published law, not legal advice about your own situation — consider an advocate for that.
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