Recently I received notice from Profession Tax Department to submit tax payment challan from 2004 onwards.  (10 years past + 1 year current) .  I have paid all payment regularly & am having last 6-7 years challans, but finding old challans is difficult.

Is the govt justified in asking for such old records ?

This also raises the question as how long to store old records & what documents are important to store life long & what documents we can destroy ?

Normally I have following documents :

1) Sale / Purchase bills , Delivery Challans (business)

2) Assets & other appliance purchase bills

3) Utility Bills (Telephone, Electric etc)

4) All Investments confirmation letters, monthly/quarterly/yearly statements , Demat Statements,  shares sale/purchase contract letters etc.

5) bank Statements / pass book / cheque book counterfoils

6) All Tax payment challans (online / offline )

7) Copy of ITR, Balance Sheets

8) past expired policies, Insurance payment receipts, etc

9)  All expenses bills / receipts , Cr.Card Statements

I am also interested in converting all my physical documents to electronic.  Please suggest some good software which can store all the documents.

Ravi Modi.