Prior year forms

[ILLMAS]

Just wondering what everyone does with prior year forms no longer used? Keep or delete? e.g. Sch C & assets no longer in service

[SunTaxMan]

Are you talking about your own or clients?

[kcjenkins]

Depends on the situation. If he is totally out of the business, and has converted any remaining assets to personal, I would enter that into the Asset Entry pages so that it removes them. If this happened last year, and you did that, then there should be no assets still in the active status, and you can simply delete the forms this year.

If he just made the decision in Jan to shut down, I'd do it this year, and I would leave the asset entry and 4562 in the return for this year. As for the C, I usually decide that based on my knowledge of the client. Some I will go ahead and delete the C, but if I suspect that the client is likely to re-start the business, [you know the type] then I leave the form in the return, just don't print it. If, next year, he's still not back in, then I delete it then. And, of course, the 4562 and Asset Entry can go once I know I don't need them any more. But if there are assets he kept, that were not fully depreciated, I generally keep those forms in the return for a while, because they often sell them in the second year, in my experience, and it is then easy to do the 4797 from those. If they were fully depreciated, of course, it is not needed for basis, but it's still easier.