More than 9 million Americans have had their identities stolen by thieves last year. Last weekend, accountant Michael Davidov and real estate agents Dayna Blumel and Kerry Adams led “a shred-a-thon” in Old Town Alexandria to raise awareness about protecting one’s identity and documents from prying eyes.
What is a shred-a-thon?
It’s an event where there’s a shredding truck on site. People come with their old tax and other documents and get them shredded.
What sort of guidelines should people follow when they’re thinking about whether to shred their documents?
Specifically, for their business and tax guidelines there’s several guidelines proscribed by the IRS. The basic guideline is they should keep it for three years. But there are some exceptions. If you filed a fraudulent return or you didn’t file one, you should keep your documents indefinitely.
In general, is it better to keep documents or to get rid of them?
I think after the statute of limitation expires, it’s definitely better to get rid of them. For current technology … they can scan those documents and scan them electronically. That’s not a bad idea.
What’s the most you’ve ever seen shredded at one time?
I’ve had a client who brought … like, seven big boxes with old papers dating back 10 years and older. People, at least some of those I’ve seen, they’re very hesitant to deal with paper. [Papers] tend to clutter the space.
How has the emergence of identity theft made it easier or harder to convince people to shred?
Yes, there’s many cases where people either forget or don’t bother to shred and just throw them out. And some unscrupulous person will grab them. It goes to show [shredding] an extra protection for a taxpayer. It’s not something that happens to someone else, it’s very real now.
— Bill Myers
