8.4 – Statutory Requirements

There are statutory provisions that relate to the retention of documents, and you should return to your client any original documents your client is required to retain. The returned documents should be accompanied with a letter advising of the statutory requirements. If you have accepted instructions from your client to retain documents until the statutory requirements are fulfilled, it is the best practice for you to confirm your agreement in writing and address issues such as the cost of retaining the file documents.

Some of the more common statutory file retention periods follow:

Other legislation may have statutory requirements for document retention; see, for example, provincial taxation and employment statutes.