Should I attach receipts to my tax return?

Usually no. Keep them in your files unless a form or a notice specifically requests documentation.

Is a screenshot of a calculator enough?

It is only a draft workpaper. Keep primary documents — disclosures, invoices and IRS forms — as the backbone.

Records to Keep When You Sell Your Home

The sale closes, the truck leaves, and the folder of PDFs becomes the only proof of basis and exclusion math. IRS recordkeeping expectations for property stretch for as long as they matter — which for basis carries through the year you report the sale and the limitations period that follows. This guide is a practical inventory of what to keep, not a promise about audit outcomes.

Core closing package

Final Closing Disclosure or ALTA settlement statement
Purchase contract and any amendments
Form 1099-S if issued
Wire confirmations and payoff letters
Title policy and deed recorded at sale
Commission invoices and broker statements

These documents support amount realized, selling expenses and the narrative of the transaction. Store both the buyer’s and seller’s columns; your tax mapping cares about the seller side, but context helps.

Basis archive from the years you owned the home

Original purchase Closing Disclosure and deed
Invoices and proofs of payment for capital improvements
Building permits and architect plans for major additions
Statements for capitalizable closing costs at purchase
Inheritance or gift documents if you did not buy the property
Divorce decrees and settlement exhibits transferring the home
Casualty loss computations and insurance settlements that affected basis
Energy credit forms that required basis reductions

If you used SaleGain’s basis worksheet, export or screenshot the inputs and results into the same archive. Replace example defaults with your real figures first.

Rental and office history

Keep every Schedule E, Form 4562, and workpaper showing depreciation. Note the dates tenants occupied the property and any Form 1099-MISC or 1099-NEC issued to contractors for capital projects. For home-office years, keep the portions of Form 8829 or equivalent records that show depreciation claimed. These files feed the nonexcludable depreciation line discussed in Depreciation After Rental Use.

Section 121 workpapers

Calendar or written timeline of occupancy during the five-year look-back
Address history from driver’s licenses, school records or leases
Prior returns claiming a Section 121 exclusion on another home
Documents supporting any partial-exclusion reason (job offer letters, physician recommendations, divorce filings, insurer disaster determinations)
Military orders if you rely on suspension of the five-year period

Remember that SaleGain outputs are educational. If you rely on them as a draft, annotate them with the Publication 523 edition you checked and the date you checked it.

How long to keep everything

As a baseline, keep records that support basis until at least three years after you file the return reporting the sale — longer if you underreported income, filed late, or have other special situations described in IRS recordkeeping guidance. Many families keep the full property binder for seven years after the sale for comfort. Digital copies with redundant backups beat paper alone. Encrypt folders that contain identification documents.

What you can shred earlier

Utility bills that do not prove occupancy during a contested look-back period, routine grocery receipts, and expired insurance quotes usually do not belong in the permanent tax binder. When in doubt about a document that might prove main-home use in a messy year, keep it until the limitations period ends.

Handing records to a preparer or to heirs

Zip the archive and include a one-page index listing sale date, purchase date, improvement totals, depreciation totals and whether a 1099-S arrived. Heirs who inherit after your death will need a similar package for their own basis. If you are the adult child helping a parent sell, obtain authorization to request payoff letters and tax transcripts rather than relying on incomplete email forwards.

With records in order, the calculators on SaleGain become quicker to use and easier to defend as drafts. Without records, even perfect arithmetic is just a guess.

Digital hygiene

Scan paper invoices at 300 dpi or higher, name files with year-project-vendor patterns, and keep a checksum or cloud version history so accidental edits are recoverable. Do not store the only copy on a phone that might be wiped. An encrypted USB drive in a fire-resistant box plus a cloud vault is a common belt-and-suspenders approach.

Redact account numbers from statements before sharing archives with anyone other than your preparer. SaleGain never receives these files; never upload them to random chatbots either.

After the return is filed

Save the accepted e-file confirmation, the full return PDF, and any state return. If you move again, take the archive with you. If you die owning the archive, tell the executor where it lives. Future basis for heirs may begin at estate tax values, but your historical improvement list still explains what was done to the property and can support valuations.

Finally, update your personal inventory of which properties you still own. Sellers who keep cabins or rentals sometimes mix folders. Label the sold property’s archive “SOLD-YYYY-MM” so it is not confused with an active rental file.

One-page index template

Write sale date, purchase date, improvement total, depreciation total, 1099-S yes/no, and the folder path of the digital archive on a single sheet placed atop the binder. That index helps future you, a preparer or an executor locate proof without opening every PDF. Refresh the index whenever you add a scanned invoice.

Additional reading on Records to Keep When You Sell Your Home should always return to the IRS primary sources linked below. Secondary summaries, including this one, exist to orient homeowners before they open those sources — not to outrank them.

Shared drives and family sellers

When siblings sell a jointly inherited home, agree on a single custodian for the digital archive and grant read-only access to the others. Conflicting copies of basis spreadsheets cause filing errors. Record who paid for which improvement after inheritance; those capital expenses can increase basis for everyone if properly documented.

For married couples filing jointly, either spouse may store the archive, but both should know the password. After divorce, duplicate the archive so each former spouse retains what they need for their own later sale or for proving carryover basis. Do not rely on an ex-spouse’s cloud account as your only copy.

Name one calendar reminder each January while you still own the home: drop that year’s improvement receipts into the folder. Ten minutes a year beats a weekend of archaeology before closing.