Should I retain bank statements hardcopies for tax or other official purposes? Or are scanned digital copies valid in such circumstances?
I am a salaried employee with no other income and fairly straightforward financial affairs - savings.
I was considering the future, e.g. for running a business or even a significant time abroad working and whether having a financial history in hard copy paper form was necessary. I would prefer to scan in such statements using my Auto Document Feeder (ADF) scanner and opt for paperless statements in future (read online).
Please advise. I'm located in the UK but I would guess an answer for all locales would be most suitable for this site.
Supplementary research:
This one looks like a good answer:
http://ask.metafilter.com/88281/Can-I-digitize-my-financial-records-for-Tax-purposes#1299796
The UK government says digital copies for tax purposes are acceptable:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/compliance/faqs.htm#8
https://www.gov.uk/keeping-your-pay-tax-records/overview
https://www.gov.uk/keeping-your-pay-tax-records/overview
My research on this forums - all of these are "how long"/"should I keep?" - not about scanning in and keeping just digital:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=49163
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=3547797
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2896482
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=326695
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=1055073