Chicago Shredding Event
In the last 12 months 8.1 million people have fallen victim to identity theft. The total economic lost was approximately 45 billion dollars. A number that I feel we can reduce if we only took identity theft more seriously. People seem not to realize that documents that have personal information on them should be kept locked away. If you no longer need certain documents they need to be disposed of properly. Shredding documents is an easy and fast way to rid you of sensitive information. If you own a company and dispose large amounts of information at once you can hire companies to dispose of the information for you.
The city of Chicago is having its 4th annual Shredding Day also known as the “Shred it & forget it.” On June 20th at the United Center LOT E there will be 10 shredding trucks that will be on hand to shred your documents for free. There will be a limit of 10 boxes of documents per person. Last year 550 cars stopped to shred their documents totaling 65,000 pounds of paper.
I applaud Chicago’s efforts to help people destroy sensitive documents properly. It’s important especially to small business to protect themselves as well as their customers from identity theft or the improper use of the sensitive documents.
Some people and businesses loose their personal information because they have too much of it. It’s not fun nor is it easy to dispose of large amounts of documents. So people procrastinate and don’t get it done. So what should you keep and what should you shred.
You should keep seven years of tax returns. The IRS has three years from the tax file date to file and audit and 6 years challenge a claim. So a good rule of thumb is to keep seven years of tax returns and supporting documents.
Keep paychecks for 1 year, and your bank statements and cancelled checks for one year. Bills should also be kept for one year or at least until the check has been returned.
You should always keep your birth certificates, social security cards, insurance policies, titles, and wills in a safety deposit box or in some other safe place.
If you don’t need a document shred it. Remember that all your personal documents are an identity theft liability. Keep as few as need for taxes and documentation. This will help you reduce the risk of someone misusing your information or using it to steal your identity.
