How Long to Keep IRA Statements: Basis, Rollovers, and QCDs

Keep routine IRA statements for six years after you file the tax return for that year, and keep anything that proves basis, Roth timing, rollovers, or an inherited account’s history for the entire life of the account plus six more years. That gap between “routine” and “everything else” is what makes the question of how long to keep IRA statements harder than it looks. Toss the wrong paper, and you can end up paying tax on money you already paid tax on once before.

Why Six Years Is the Baseline

The IRS generally has three years from the date you file a return to audit it and assess more tax. That window stretches to six years if you left off more than 25% of the gross income you should have reported, which for IRA holders most often comes up around large distributions. If you filed a fraudulent return or never filed at all, there is no time limit.¹

So for an ordinary year, with an ordinary contribution and no distribution, six years from filing covers you. That means the year-end statement showing your balance, the Form 5498 from your custodian, and any 1099-R for that year can go into the shredder once six tax cycles have passed. What follows is the short list of records that don’t get to leave on that schedule.

Non-Deductible Contribution Records: Life of the Account

This is where most people get burned. When you make a non-deductible contribution to a traditional IRA, you’re putting in money that’s already been taxed. That creates basis. Every dollar of basis you can prove comes back to you tax-free when you take distributions. Every dollar you can’t prove gets taxed a second time. The IRS puts it plainly: without records, you may owe tax on the full amount of any distribution.²

You track basis on Form 8606, filed for each year you make a non-deductible contribution or take a distribution that includes basis. Keep the following for every such year:

Page 1 of your Form 1040
Every Form 8606 you filed, with any supporting worksheets
Form 5498 from your custodian, showing the contribution and year-end value
Form 1099-R for each year you took a distribution

The IRS instructs you to keep these “until all distributions are made” from your IRAs.² Practically, that is the life of the account, and then another six years past your final distribution to cover the audit window on that last return. Someone who begins making non-deductible contributions at 35 and draws the account down to zero at 80 is looking at a 50-year file. There is no shortcut. Lose the paper, and you lose the basis.

Roth IRA Contributions and Conversions

Roth distributions can be entirely tax-free, but only after you’ve reached 59½ and five tax years have passed since your first Roth contribution.³ Proving you cleared that five-year mark requires documentation of when the first contribution actually landed.

Conversions add a second layer. Each Roth conversion carries its own five-year clock, and withdrawing a converted amount before that clock runs can trigger the 10% early withdrawal penalty on the portion that was taxable at conversion, unless you’re 59½ or another exception applies. Roth distributions also follow an ordering rule: regular contributions come out first, then conversions on a first-in-first-out basis, then earnings.⁴ To prove which dollars came out in which year, you need year-by-year records of both contributions and conversions.

Keep all of it for the life of the Roth, plus six years after the account’s final distribution.

Rollover and Transfer Paperwork

When you move money between retirement accounts, you have to prove the transaction was a rollover rather than a distribution you kept. If you can’t, the IRS can treat the whole amount as taxable income, and if you were under 59½, add the 10% early withdrawal penalty on top.⁵

For any rollover or transfer, keep the 1099-R from the distributing custodian and the Form 5498 from the receiving one. Together they show the money left one account and arrived at another. Six years past the return for the rollover year is enough for most cases.

The 60-Day Indirect Rollover

Direct trustee-to-trustee transfers are clean because the money never touches you. Indirect rollovers are the risky version: the old custodian cuts you a check, and you have 60 days to deposit it into the new account.⁶ Miss that 60-day mark, and the entire amount becomes a taxable distribution.

If a qualifying reason caused the miss, you can self-certify using the model letter in Revenue Procedure 2020-46. Qualifying reasons include a financial institution error, serious illness, a family member’s death, a natural disaster, or a misplaced check.⁷ Self-certification isn’t the end of it: an examiner can still challenge it during the audit window. Keep proof of the reason for the delay, the original distribution documentation, and evidence of the eventual deposit for at least six years past the return that reported the rollover.

Inherited IRA Records

Inheriting an IRA means inheriting a paperwork obligation that can run more than a decade. Most non-spouse beneficiaries who inherited from someone who died in 2020 or later must empty the account by December 31 of the tenth year after the year of death.⁸ If the original owner had already reached their required beginning date for RMDs, annual distributions are also required during years one through nine.

What you need to keep goes beyond your own statements. Get copies of the original owner’s Form 8606 filings if they ever made non-deductible contributions, because that basis carries to you. Without those forms, you’ll pay tax on distributions that should have been partially tax-free. Also keep the death certificate, the beneficiary designation form, your own annual statements, and every 1099-R the account generates. Hold everything for the full period you have the account, plus six years past the final distribution.

Qualified Charitable Distribution Acknowledgments

If you’re 70½ or older and make qualified charitable distributions directly from your IRA to an eligible charity, those amounts (up to $111,000 per person in 2026) are excluded from your taxable income.⁹ Your 1099-R will show the full distribution as gross income, and it’s your job to claim the exclusion on your return. That means the proof of what qualified sits with you, not the custodian.

For any QCD of $250 or more, keep a written acknowledgment from the charity that names the charity, states the amount received, and confirms no goods or services were provided in return.¹⁰ File the acknowledgment with the 1099-R for the same year, and keep both for at least six years past that return.

Storing Records Digitally Without Losing Them

You don’t need file boxes. The IRS accepts electronic records, but they have to meet the standards in Revenue Procedure 97-22: the storage system needs controls against unauthorized changes or deletions, the records must be legible enough to read every character clearly, and you have to be able to produce a paper copy on request.¹¹

The requirement that most people miss concerns access. If you stop maintaining the hardware and software needed to open a file, the IRS treats those records as destroyed.¹¹ Scanned PDFs sitting in cloud storage are safe because PDF readers are universally available. A proprietary format from a specific custodian’s portal is not. If your custodian offers only its own format, convert to PDF, and keep at least one backup in a separate location, whether that’s a second cloud service or an external drive.

Quick Reference by Record Type

How long to hold each piece depends on what it proves:

Annual summary statements for routine years: six years past the return for that tax year.¹²
Form 8606 and non-deductible contribution records: until every traditional IRA you own is fully distributed, plus six more years.²
Roth contribution and conversion records: life of the account plus six years past the final distribution.
Rollover 1099-R and 5498: six years past the return for the rollover year.
Inherited IRA records, including the original owner’s basis documentation: the full period you hold the account plus six years past the last distribution.
QCD acknowledgment letters: six years past the return for the distribution year.¹⁰
Anything tied to a fraudulent return or a year you didn’t file: keep indefinitely. No statute of limitations applies.¹

When in doubt, keep the record. Storage is cheap. Reconstructing decades of IRA basis from scratch is not, and often it’s not possible at all. The IRS puts the burden of proof on you to substantiate what’s on your return, and without the documentation, you lose the argument.¹³

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6501 – Limitations on Assessment and Collection
2
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8606
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 408A – Roth IRAs
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 408A – Roth IRAs
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 72 – Annuities; Certain Proceeds of Endowment and Life Insurance Contracts
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 408 – Individual Retirement Accounts
7
Internal Revenue Service. Rev. Proc. 2020-46
8
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Beneficiary
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 408 – Individual Retirement Accounts
10
Internal Revenue Service. Charitable Contributions – Written Acknowledgments
11
Internal Revenue Service. Rev. Proc. 97-22
12
Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 305, Recordkeeping
13
Internal Revenue Service. Burden of Proof