Memorial Day is on the horizon and that means another tax season is becoming a distant memory. It also means it’s time to think about how many old tax records you have in storage and consider maybe turning it over for proper destruction. Maintaining records includes knowing what to keep and what to dispose. We recommend referencing your industry organizations for guidance. Streamlining storage is a matter of saving space, saving money, as well as limiting liability.
When you think about how much square footage you’re dedicating to housing old records, does it make you wonder why that space isn’t being used for something more valuable to your company? Are you using off-site storage to contain your old tax records? While the latter situation is great for storage facilities and their bottom line, you’re actually wasting money holding onto boxes that you’re not likely even looking at, let alone touching or removing. Why shell out hundreds of dollars per month for something that you can legally destroy and eliminate for good?
It’s also good practice to clean out old records for the sake of confidentiality. Confidential documents contain information such as account numbers and account details, social security numbers or birth dates of employees, bank records, canceled checks, and more. Why leave these sensitive documents around and risk a possible security breach?
Shredding these documents is the way to go because it ensures that the documents are destroyed and unusable to possible wrong-doers. This does not mean invest in an office shredder. While some businesses feel it’s good practice to have an in-house shredder for regular use, this is a great example of being penny-wise yet pound-foolish. Among the biggest pitfalls of using an in-house shredder is potential security breaches due to the mishandling of sensitive documentation. Letting employees handle your shredding means you can expose sensitive personnel records and competitive information to individuals that are not meant to see it.
Why run the potential risk when there is professional and secure shredding services like HV Shred to do it for you? Outsourcing to companies like HV Shred means document destruction happens very quickly with little, if any handling by the shredding service’s screened professionals.
It’s time to take inventory of your old tax records and see how you can not only save on space, but ditch the storage unit so that money stays on your bottom line.
Please visit hvshred.com to learn how easy we can make the whole process!