Is being TOO thorough bad for trustees?

[Scream2Death]

I'm a little weird as I save every single receipt, and even request one when stores don't give me one.

I have literally every single receipt form 2004, Mcdonalds, clothes, even a receipt of a 25 cents gum


Now, if I hand over all these receipts to the trustee, will it actually be beneficial to me or can it be used against me?


thanks again people!

[demismom]

You sound like me! LOL I don't believe the Trustee will even ever see those receipts. Heck, my attorney never asked to see mine. She just sent my petition to me to review the figures she put in and asked me what needed adjusting.

So, I don't think it could hurt at all and do think it would be beneficial, if you have a handle on what they represent, you know, your budget? It'll be easier to "prove" any one expense if it's ever questioned.

[SinkingFast]

Hang onto the receipts.

If your BK goes well, the Trustee won't ever see 'em. But if your case gets flagged for further investigation, those receipts could come in handy. At least you can verify where your money went.

[Granny]

It's disappointing when you have the receipts and no one cares, isn't it?

I've got every receipt for the last 12 years, all sorted into categories and boxed away forever.

Just tuck them away, you never know when you might need them.

[spell]

Dumb question: why are you saving all of your receipts?

[BKOnce]

Save only big ticket item$. Trustee don't want to see when you eat $2 hot dog, where to drink $1 coke, why to read .50 cent newspaper, etc.... !? Nah, I don't think so too .. so trivial & mundane tasks...

[demismom]

I keep all receipts for absolutely no reason as well, maybe it's a form of OCD or something. ;)

[Granny]

Dumb question: why are you saving all of your receipts?

At this point now, it's habit. But it started many years ago. Hubby owed IRS a large chunk of change and in the days before the collection standards, you had to be able to prove your living expenses so I started keeping everything. Now that his tax problems have been resolved, I'd stop keeping them but more than once we've gone to those files to pull a receipt for a car battery, or a tool, or something else that was still in warranty and we needed the receipt. I also kept them to prove to my ex that I spent more on our girls than he did.

Also, hubby has been self employed most of the 18 years we have been married, so I have to keep those receipts for tax purposes.

As I enter the receipts into Quicken, I file them by category and at year end, they get put into envelopes by category. It's interesting to see at year end how much or how little cash I have spent that is unaccounted for...you know atm transactions that don't have cash receipts to make up the full amount. Some years, I get very close at accounting for every penny.

And finally, in my limited spare time, I do genealogy and I find it very interesting to see old papers of my family and I hope someone will enjoy going through my stuff too.

Oh, and we have the spare space so why throw them out.

[Scream2Death]

At this point now, it's habit. But it started many years ago. Hubby owed IRS a large chunk of change and in the days before the collection standards, you had to be able to prove your living expenses so I started keeping everything. Now that his tax problems have been resolved, I'd stop keeping them but more than once we've gone to those files to pull a receipt for a car battery, or a tool, or something else that was still in warranty and we needed the receipt. I also kept them to prove to my ex that I spent more on our girls than he did.

Also, hubby has been self employed most of the 18 years we have been married, so I have to keep those receipts for tax purposes.

As I enter the receipts into Quicken, I file them by category and at year end, they get put into envelopes by category. It's interesting to see at year end how much or how little cash I have spent that is unaccounted for...you know atm transactions that don't have cash receipts to make up the full amount. Some years, I get very close at accounting for every penny.

And finally, in my limited spare time, I do genealogy and I find it very interesting to see old papers of my family and I hope someone will enjoy going through my stuff too.

Oh, and we have the spare space so why throw them out.

so it's beneficial for tax purposes when filing? thanks

[Granny]

so it's beneficial for tax purposes when filing? thanks

Not really beneficial for tax filing, but several years ago it ways beneficial when dealiso it's not really necessary. However, if someone had to have a special diet, which would put them over the standards, it would be beneficial to be able to substantiate that.

Another example would be home repairs. Last I heard, they were allowing a percent of the mortgage payment for repairs, but in our case, we are not served by city utilities so we must maintain our well and septic system. This is an added expense that the ordinary Joe wouldn't have, so it would be beneficial to be able to substantiate that expense. We also have two acres and two small children. We spend more for fire ant control.

There are definitely tricks to dealing with the IRS collections division.