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Ask Slashdot: How To Go Paperless At Home?
THE_WELL_HUNG_OYSTER writes "Over the years, I've had numerous scanners equipped with automatic document feeders — and all of them jam or grab multiple pages at a time (thereby missing pages). Like you, I've got years of tax returns and legal documents to scan, but with these kinds of barriers, it would take months to scan everything. Enterprise-grade machines cost 5 figures. How do Slashdotters become paper-free?"
Find someone who'll rent one to you.
Better yet, use the roundfile. 99.999% of all paperwork doesn't need to exist, much less be saved digitally. Even tax documents sunset in just a few years.
All those tax returns, legal paperwork... Can't they just stay on a box or at the basement? It'll require lots of work, and get few benefits. I would understand for new documents; i.e. introducing to a spreadsheet some taxes/things to pay. But why care about the past? Or, at least, why scan? Just type the figures, it'll be more semantic and wouldn't involve machines (except for you and the computer).
Install a bidet.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Why the hell would you give the guy at Kikos a box of your tax returns and legal documents? Especially since you are asking him to scan them! It only takes a minute for him to make his own digital copy and poof! There goes your identity.
Seriously. It is much, much harder to keep records electronically than to throw the pieces of paper into a file cabinet and forget about it. This is well documented.
True. Equally well documented is how much easier it is to index paper by multiple keys, as well as rapidly resort and search file cabinets. Oh wait, no, that's electronically stored documents.
Seriously, storing paper is a ton easier and it works for many purposes. Until you move, or have a fire, or your basement floods, or you need a copy of that letter you received from your insurance company 18-24 months ago confirming a change to your home because they're now claiming they weren't informed you're using natural gas instead of electric heat and are declining a $250,000 insurance claim after the aforementioned fire.
But sure, paper is easier to throw into a file cabinet and forget about.
Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, but teach a man to phish...
although some paper work can be eliminated after 4 years, other needs to be retained much, much longer. Supporting documents for tax returns -- especially those not reported by third parties to the irs -- should be kept for a minimum of 3 years AFTER you file the return. Six years if you have under-reported or taken aggressive deductions that may reduce your taxes due by more than 25%.
In addition you should retain every receipt for the purchase and capital improvements to your house until (see above) years after you sell the house -- this includes new roofs, AC, appliances, remodeling expenses, etc.
Stock records should be kept as above.
Contracts (esp. big ones) should be kept until the contract is completed, and at least until the statue of limitations runs out.
This doesn't even get into business property -- where you can be audited on a desk you purchased up to 14 years later (in theory). Property related to assets (vs. expenses) should almost be retained indefinitely.
The number of people being able to afford one is irrelevant. There are always wealthy people who can afford something that the poor cannot.
The question about the savings of keeping less paper are perfectly on target. Assuming the paper is recycled (either after scanning or after you've kept it for the required seven years) that part's a wash. They still printed and mailed you the paper, and you still handled it and disposed of it. There is no savings one way or the other based on how long you keep it.
The only actual savings is incurred if you change residences. Not having to move seven boxes of old papers is perhaps worth a few cents of your time and some truck fuel.
The other "savings" claimed is convenience. Having a searchable back index of these pieces of paper might have some value, but only if you actually need to refer back to them. And that's the deal. I have a box of paper marked "2006" in the closet, filled with receipts, bills, tax forms, etc. How often do I go back to that? Never. So how often would I need to refer back to the electronic version of the same data? Never. It's a box of pre-recycling scrap paper that I store only because I may need it in case of a future tax audit. Otherwise, doing anything with it is a waste of my time and effort.
Next January, I'll spend an hour in front of the shredder getting rid of the contents of that box. Even that's no different than spending a minute a week shredding them after scanning them, really. Now, a scanner/shredder combination might be a lower-effort way of handling them, but that's not the product we're looking at. Plus, I shred in bulk, which is a lot faster than shredding a sheet at a time while scanning it.
So I completely agree with you. Overall, scanning these papers would be a step that delivers no benefit to me, yet costs me in terms of time and money.
John
Not sure why you've been marked as troll, but there are services that will do this for you. Send them a box of paperwork and a couple of weeks later you get access to everything as searchable pdf files.
Plus there's the added bonus of someone else having your complete history in digital form! Saves them a few steps if they ever want to make a lateral move into identity theft.
#DeleteChrome