Question : Are scanned in documents/statements sufficient for audit purposes and loan applications?
I have been scanning in my bank statements, IRA statements, medical benefits statements, etc. Are the electronic copies that I have sufficient for audit purposes and/or loan applications? I would like to throw out my hard copies but I want to make sure that my scans are generally acceptable.
application audit

Best answer:

Answer by trade_info
good luck on finding a direct answer to that question with the IRS. personally i think that an IRS agent would be thrilled to have such an organized source of data from you. in many cases the IRS wants the original records or the ability to reconstruct the data as needed. that implies that scanned copies are good. most banks nowadays just provide scanned copies of checks and that is acceptable. the new banking rules allow the banks to scan the check image and send those to the clearing house for payment.