Updated November 2026 · Southern New Hampshire
Shredding for accountants in NH: client files, workpapers and the May purge
A plain guide for New Hampshire CPAs, enrolled agents, bookkeepers and tax preparers on what the FTC Safeguards Rule and IRS Publication 4557 expect when client paper is thrown out. Then the practical part: what to keep, what to shred after the season, and what it costs to drive it down or have it picked up.
$20 per banker’s box at 10 boxes or more at our Tewksbury drop-off. Certificate of Destruction on every job.
- 99¢ per pound
- Since 2007
- BBB A+
- No long-term contract
Quick answer
Tax preparers are financial institutions under the FTC Safeguards Rule, and 16 CFR 314.4(c)(6) requires procedures to securely dispose of customer information no later than two years after you last used it to serve the client, unless you need it for business or the law says keep it. IRS Publication 4557 tells preparers to shred paper with taxpayer information and physically destroy old drives. New Hampshire Document Shredding shreds client files at its Tewksbury office for 99 cents per pound, or $20 per banker’s box at 10 boxes or more, plus $34.90 in per-job fees, with a Certificate of Destruction for your security plan.
Why shredding for accountants is a compliance job, not a chore
Most small firms think of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act as a banking law. It is broader than that. The FTC’s own guidance on the Safeguards Rule lists tax preparation firms among the financial institutions it covers, and IRS Publication 4557 says the same thing in plain words: the definition of financial institution includes professional tax preparers.
That puts your firm under 16 CFR Part 314. The rule asks for a written information security program, a Qualified Individual who runs it, and safeguards that match the size of your practice and the sensitivity of what you hold. Disposal is one of those safeguards, and it has a deadline built in.
Section 314.4(c)(6) requires procedures for the secure disposal of customer information in any format no later than two years after the last date you used it to serve that client. There are exceptions. You can keep information you need for business operations, information another law requires you to keep, and information you cannot practically separate out. What you cannot do is keep everything forever because nobody got around to the back room.
Our document shredding work for accounting firms is built around that rule. You decide what has reached the end of its life, we shred it at our office in Tewksbury, and you get a certificate that shows the disposal procedure actually ran.
The FTC exempts firms that hold customer information on fewer than 5,000 consumers from certain provisions of the Safeguards Rule. It is not a blanket exemption. Read the rule before you assume a small practice is out of it, and keep a disposal procedure either way. It costs little and it is the part an investigator will ask about first.
What a tax practice should shred
Paper in an accounting office falls into a few groups. Each one carries Social Security numbers, account numbers or income figures, which is exactly what an identity thief looks for in a dumpster behind an office park.
Client source documents
Copies of W-2s, 1099s, K-1s, brokerage and bank statements, mortgage interest statements and receipts. Many firms return originals and keep scans. The photocopies and printouts that pile up during the season are the ones to shred.
Workpapers and drafts
Draft returns, review copies, adjusting entries, printouts of trial balances and the yellow pads full of notes from client meetings. Drafts often hold more detail than the final return.
Organizers and intake forms
Client organizers, questionnaires, copies of driver’s licenses taken for identity checks, and signed e-file authorizations once their own retention period has run.
Payroll and bookkeeping
Payroll registers, timesheets, I-9 copies held for clients, bank reconciliations and old check stock. Payroll records carry employee SSNs for people who never met you.
Departed clients
Files for clients who left, died or moved out of state. They are easy to forget, and the two-year clock in the Safeguards Rule starts from your last use of their information.
Old devices
Retired laptops, external backup drives, USB sticks and the copier or printer drive. Publication 4557 tells preparers to physically destroy drives and media before disposal. Our hard drive destruction service handles those per item.
You do not need to pull staples, paper clips or file folders. Take out three-ring binder hardware and hanging-folder frames, and put any media in a separate bag. Our checklist on how to prepare documents for shredding covers the rest.
A client file retention schedule for NH tax practices
Before anything is shredded, someone has to decide it is past its keep date. The periods below come from IRS guidance and the Safeguards Rule. Your engagement letters, your professional liability carrier and your licensing rules may ask for longer, and when they do, the longer period wins.
| Record | Minimum period | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Copy of each return you prepared, or a list of clients, TINs, years and return types | 3 years after the close of the return period (a 12-month period starting July 1) | IRC 6107(b), described in IRM 20.1.6 |
| Due diligence records for EITC, CTC and similar credits, including Form 8867 | At least 3 years, paper or electronic | IRS due diligence rules for paid preparers |
| Client income tax records, general rule | 3 years | IRS, How long should I keep records |
| Returns with unreported income over 25 percent of gross | 6 years | IRS, How long should I keep records |
| Returns claiming a bad debt or worthless securities loss | 7 years | IRS, How long should I keep records |
| Employment tax records | At least 4 years after the tax is due or paid, whichever is later | IRS, How long should I keep records |
| Customer information no longer used to serve the client | Dispose no later than 2 years after last use, unless an exception applies | 16 CFR 314.4(c)(6) |
Notice how the periods interact. A client you prepared a 2022 return for, and who left after that season, may still need the six or seven year window if there was an unusual item. A one-page W-2 return with no follow-up questions does not. That is why most firms set one default period, usually longer than the IRS minimum, and flag the exceptions on the file folder.
Write the schedule down and put it in your security plan. A schedule that lives in one partner’s head turns into “keep it all” the day that partner retires. For the client side of the question, our tax record retention guide is written for households, and our document retention guide covers business records in general.
The post-season purge in May
The best week to clear the back room is the one after the April deadline. The season’s paper is fresh, staff remember which piles are which, and the client calls have slowed. Firms that wait until summer tend to find the job grew a second shelf. Here is a purge plan that fits a small office.
- Pull the retention list. Run your client list against the schedule and mark every file past its keep date. Flag anything under audit, on extension, in a dispute or tied to a pending engagement. Those stay.
- Box by year and label. Use lidded banker’s boxes. Write the tax year and “shred” on two sides. A full banker’s box of paper weighs about 30 pounds, which is how we estimate cost before you arrive.
- Separate the media. Old laptops, backup drives and USB sticks go in their own bag with a count on the outside. They are quoted per item, not by weight.
- Pick drop-off or pickup. Under ten boxes, most Salem, Windham or Pelham firms drive down. Ten or more, the box rate applies. Thirty or more, or a third-floor office with no elevator, book a pickup and let the driver carry them.
- Shred and file the certificate. The paper is shredded at our Tewksbury office. Put the Certificate of Destruction in the same folder as your security plan, next to the retention list you used.
A second, smaller purge after the October 15 extension deadline catches the extension clients and the files that came back from review. If your firm likes a single yearly event, our post on the benefits of an annual purge makes the case for picking one week and holding to it.
Estimate your purge
Enter your box count and how you plan to get the boxes to us. The estimate uses the same rates printed on this page, including the $34.90 per-job fees.
Shredding Cost Calculator
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Tip: one banker box of paper is about 30 pounds.
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Estimate only. Final price confirmed when you book. Off-site material must be ground-level or elevator access.
Pickup in tax season or drop-off: which one fits your firm
We shred everything at one place, our office at 1215 Main Street, Unit 115, Tewksbury, just south of the New Hampshire line. The only question is how the boxes get there. For three boxes, drive. For thirty, book the pickup.
Drop-off
Walk in Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. No appointment. Paper is weighed at the counter and shredded the same business day. From Salem it is about 15 minutes by I-93 or Route 38. Read more on our drop-off shredding page.
Pickup
A driver collects your sealed boxes and brings them to our office, where they are shredded. Same per-pound or per-box rates plus a zone fee. Appointment required, and it is worth booking a week or two ahead in the spring. Details are on our off-site shredding page.
Witnessed
Some partners want to see a departed client’s file or a closed engagement go through the shredder themselves. Book a witnessed shredding session at $1.99 per pound with a $100 job minimum, and the certificate is signed in front of you.
During the season itself, most firms do not shred much. That is sensible. You are still working the files, and the time to decide what goes is after the return is filed. The exception is overflow: a back room so full that client boxes end up in a hallway or a closet nobody locks. That is a Safeguards problem in its own right, and a mid-season pickup on a quiet Wednesday solves it.
Pickup pricing depends on where you are. Zone 1 covers the border towns such as Salem, Pelham, Windham and Plaistow. Zone 2 covers greater Nashua and Manchester. Zone 3 covers the Seacoast and points farther north. The exact zone is confirmed when you book, and our page on shredding pickup zones in NH lists them.
What a post-season purge costs
The numbers below use a standard banker’s box of about 30 pounds. Under ten boxes, you pay by the pound. At ten or more, the flat rate of $20 per large box applies, which works out cheaper than weighing. Every job carries the $14.95 HIPAA filing fee and the $19.95 environmental fee, $34.90 in total, which covers the Certificate of Destruction paperwork and recycling the shred.
| Banker’s boxes | Shredding | Drop-off total | Zone 1 pickup | Zone 2 pickup | Zone 3 pickup |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 (about 150 lb) | $148.50 | $183.40 | $313.35 | $343.35 | $383.35 |
| 10 | $200.00 | $234.90 | $364.85 | $394.85 | $434.85 |
| 20 | $400.00 | $434.90 | $564.85 | $594.85 | $634.85 |
| 40 | $800.00 | $834.90 | $964.85 | $994.85 | $1,034.85 |
Pickup prices assume ground-level or elevator access. If the boxes are up a flight of stairs or behind a restricted entrance, a handling fee applies and is quoted up front. Full prices for every service are on our shredding rates page.
Batch the job. Because the $34.90 fees apply per job, four separate trips with five boxes each come to $733.60. The same twenty boxes in one trip cost $434.90, because one job gets one set of fees and the box rate. Hold the purge until it is worth one visit.
Mistakes we see from tax offices, and the fix for each
After years of accounting firms coming through the door in late April, the same handful of problems show up again and again. None of them is dramatic. Each one is the kind of thing that turns into a hard conversation if a client’s information turns up somewhere it should not.
Start with the recycling bin by the printer. Staff print a draft return, spot an error, print it again, and the first copy goes into the blue bin with the junk mail. Put a locked shred console or a lidded box marked “shred” next to every printer during the season, and empty it into your purge boxes once a week.
Next comes the home office. Enrolled agents and bookkeepers who work from home often keep client paper in a spare bedroom and run it through a small cross-cut shredder at the kitchen table. That is fine for a few pages. It is not a plan for six boxes of workpapers, and the bag of shred ends up at the curb with the household trash.
Then there are the departed partner’s files. When someone retires or leaves, their client files sit in a corner while everyone decides who owns them. Two years later, nobody has looked, and the Safeguards Rule clock has quietly run out. Assign the files to a named person on the day the partner leaves.
Old drives are the fourth. Nobody counts them. A firm replaces three laptops and the old ones go in a closet “until IT gets to them”. Pull the drives on the day the new machines arrive, put them in a labeled bag, and bring them in with the next paper purge.
A purge with no paperwork is the fifth. A firm shreds forty boxes, files nothing, and two years later cannot show what was destroyed or when. Keep the retention list you used and the Certificate of Destruction together, in the same folder as your written security plan.
Last is waiting too long. Firms that skip a year find that the next purge is twice the size, takes two weekends to sort, and still leaves files no one is sure about. A small purge every spring is easier to run and easier to defend than a giant one every five years.
A worked example for a three-person firm
Take an illustrative three-person practice in Hudson with a back room of about 25 banker’s boxes past their retention date and two retired laptops. Sorting takes one afternoon in early May. The 25 boxes go in one pickup, because a Hudson office usually falls in the greater Nashua zone, confirmed at booking, and hauling 750 pounds of paper down the stairs and across the state line is not a good use of anyone’s billable time.
At $20 per box, 25 boxes come to $500. The per-job fees add $34.90 and the Zone 2 transportation fee adds $159.95, for $694.85 in total. The two laptop drives are pulled, bagged and quoted per item on the same visit. The firm files the certificate with its security plan and books the same week for next May.
Putting shredding into your written security plan
Publication 4557 points preparers to Publication 5708 for help writing the plan the Safeguards Rule requires. Whatever template you use, disposal deserves its own short section. An examiner or an insurer reading it should be able to see who decides, how often, and where the proof lives.
- Name the person who approves destruction. Usually the Qualified Individual or a partner.
- Attach the retention schedule and the date it was last reviewed.
- Say where paper waits before shredding. A locked room or locked console, not a box under a desk.
- Say how paper leaves. Drop-off, pickup or witnessed, with the vendor’s name.
- Say how drives and devices leave. Physical destruction, quoted per item, with a certificate.
- Keep every Certificate of Destruction in one folder, by date.
- Review the section once a year, in December, before the next season starts.
On the physical side, Publication 4557 is blunt. It tells preparers to shred or burn documents with taxpayer information before throwing them away, and to physically destroy hard drives, tapes, USBs, CDs, tablets and phones. A recycling bin by the copier does not meet that bar, and neither does a home shredder that jammed in March and never got fixed.
If a breach does happen, New Hampshire’s notice law, RSA 359-C:19 to 359-C:21, sets out who you must tell. Our page on the NH data breach law walks through it. Some firms also hold consumer credit reports in loan or financial planning files, which brings in the FTC Disposal Rule. Our FACTA compliance guide covers that rule.
The certificate itself is simple. It records who you are, the date and what was destroyed. Our page on the certificate of destruction shows what to expect and where to file it.
Frequently asked questions
Does the FTC Safeguards Rule apply to a small tax practice?
Yes, in most cases. The FTC lists tax preparation firms as financial institutions under the rule, and IRS Publication 4557 says the same. Firms with customer information on fewer than 5,000 consumers are exempt from certain provisions, not the whole rule. Read 16 CFR Part 314 for your situation and keep a written disposal procedure either way.
How long must I keep client files before shredding?
It depends on the record. You must keep a copy or a list of returns you prepared for three years after the close of the return period. Client records usually follow the IRS three, six or seven year periods, and employment tax records four years. The Safeguards Rule asks you to dispose of unused customer information within two years of last use, unless you need it or the law requires it.
What does shredding cost for an accounting firm?
Drop-off is 99 cents per pound, or $20 per banker’s box at ten boxes or more, plus $34.90 in per-job fees. Ten boxes come to $234.90 at the counter. Pickup adds a zone fee of $129.95, $159.95 or $199.95, so the same ten boxes picked up in greater Nashua or Manchester come to $394.85.
Can you pick up during tax season?
Yes, by appointment. Pickups are booked ahead, and in the spring it is wise to book a week or two out. We do not promise same-day service. Most firms hold paper until after April 15 and book one pickup for the post-season purge, unless storage overflows earlier and boxes end up in a space nobody locks.
Do I need to remove staples and binder clips?
No. Staples, paper clips, binder clips, rubber bands and file folders can go in as they are. Remove three-ring binder hardware and hanging-folder frames, and keep anything that is not paper out of the boxes. Old drives, USB sticks and discs go in a separate bag because they are quoted per item.
What goes on the Certificate of Destruction?
The certificate records your firm, the date of the job and what was destroyed. It comes with every job, covered by the $14.95 HIPAA filing fee that is part of the $34.90 per-job fees. File it with your written information security plan so the disposal step can be shown to an examiner, an insurer or a client who asks.
Should I shred client originals or give them back?
Many firms return original source documents to the client at the end of the engagement and keep scans. That leaves photocopies, drafts and printouts in your office, which are the pages to shred once their retention period ends. Write your practice down in the engagement letter so clients know what you keep and for how long.
How do I dispose of old computers from the office?
IRS Publication 4557 tells preparers to delete information from devices and physically destroy hard drives, tapes, USBs, CDs, tablets and phones before disposal. Pull the drives, bag them with a count on the outside and bring them in with your paper. Media is quoted per item and physically destroyed at our Tewksbury office, with a Certificate of Destruction.
Sources
- 16 CFR 314.4, Safeguards Rule elements, including (c)(6) disposal (eCFR) (checked November 2026)
- FTC, Safeguards Rule: What Your Business Needs to Know (checked November 2026)
- IRS Publication 4557, Safeguarding Taxpayer Data (Rev. 6-2024) (checked November 2026)
- IRS, How long should I keep records (checked November 2026)
- IRS, Internal Revenue Manual 20.1.6, Preparer and Promoter Penalties (IRC 6107(b)) (checked November 2026)
- IRS, Tax preparer due diligence rules (checked November 2026)
Book your post-season purge
Box the files past retention, bag the old drives, and either drive them down or book a pickup. Every job is shredded at our Tewksbury office and ends with a Certificate of Destruction for your security plan.
New Hampshire Document Shredding
1215 Main Street, Unit 115, Tewksbury, MA 01876. Route 38 near I-495, about 15 minutes from the Salem and Pelham line. Free parking out front.
Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pickups and witnessed sessions outside these hours by appointment.
- Drop-off: 99¢ per pound, $20 per banker’s box at 10 or more
- Pickup: same rates plus a zone fee, by appointment
- Witnessed: $1.99 per pound, $100 minimum, by appointment
New Hampshire Document Shredding · 1215 Main Street, Unit 115, Tewksbury, MA 01876 · (978) 636-0301 · Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.