Can You Throw Away Pay Stubs?

If you are an employee, you are most likely exposed to some aspects of payroll.

Some employees receive pay stubs from their former employers once a month or every week. If these stubs end up getting lost or misplaced, your corporation might lose millions of dollars every year.

So, can you throw away pay stubs?

Many people don’t realize that pay stubs contain valuable personal information that a thief can exploit for financial gains.

They can find out how much you make, what taxes you are liable for, and what your deductions are for. This information can also be used for identity theft and bank fraud and could result in you getting hit with hefty fines and fees.

Let’s take the closer look at this problem.

Contents

1 Can You Throw Away Pay Stubs?
2 Where Can You Throw Away Pay Stubs?
3 What Happens to Pay Stubs That Are Recycled?
4 How to Prepare Your Pay Subs for Disposal
5 How Long To Keep Pay Stubs?
6 Conclusion
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Pay stubs should never be discarded because they almost always contain information which can be used to commit fraud or identity theft.

This is especially true if the stubs are from an employer that has merged with another corporation or has been acquired by another company.

Also, anyone who has access to these stubs can misuse them to get access to your sensitive personal and financial information. This information can be used to commit crimes such as credit card and loan application fraud or identity theft or bankruptcy fraud.

All of these scams involve the manipulation of information and can lead to hefty fines and penalties and even jail time in some cases.

So, while many people may think that discarding their pay stubs is harmless, it is actually very dangerous and can lead to many negative things in the future.

The most practical approach will be to gather your pay stubs each month and file them away in a safe place.

Where Can You Throw Away Pay Stubs?

Pay stubs are a large source of personal and financial information and should be disposed of only after shredding them or burning them or disposing of them in some other way that is not likely to defraud.

At the very minimum, you should tear them up into small pieces and then discard them.

This means you may safely toss them in the trash after tearing them up into small pieces and discarding them in the trash or taking them through a shredder and disposing of the shreds.

If you reside in one of these states, you should gather up the pay stubs each month and dispose of them in your garbage at home.

You may then take them to a shredding truck or to an office supply store and dispose of them there in the proper way.

Because paper is one of the most regularly used forms of communication, criminals will often look to steal information through paper documents.

It will be best to shred them or burn them or dispose of them in some other way that is not likely to defraud or give them access to other personal information.

Some establishments forbid customers from discarding papers of any kind, such as pay stubs, in their disposal containers.

What Happens to Pay Stubs That Are Recycled?

Pay stubs are one form of paper that you can clean for recycling.

Not only are pay stubs recycled to make new paper, but many businesses will recycle them to make other products.

Recycling pay stubs and other papers is important economically and for the environment.

Trees provide oxygen to breathe and absorb carbon dioxide.

If trees are not cut down, the oxygen that they produce would help reduce air pollution and make air cleaner and healthier for us to breathe. Recycling pay stubs and other papers is important economically and for the environment.

Recycling paper reduces the amount of chemicals needed to make new paper and conserves water.

Recycling paper has also helped reduce air pollution, water pollution and energy usage and cut down the need to cut down trees for paper production.

How to Prepare Your Pay Subs for Disposal

You wouldn’t need to clean out, shred, or burn your pay stubs if you only use them for income tax purposes or to determine how much to pay your babysitter.

In fact, you will usually be able to shred and recycle most pay stubs without too much effort, depending on how much information they contain.

Remember that pay stubs may contain vital information for identity theft or credit fraud.

So, this implies that before recycling them, you need to dispose of them securely and properly.

Ideally, you should choose a safe method to destroy them.

Most individuals are unlikely to go to the hassle of burning documents like pay stubs for disposal, so let’s assume you’re one of the exceptions.

You should not worry about shredded paper contaminating air or drinking water because it is often incinerated at very high temperatures.

How Long To Keep Pay Stubs?

By means of your pay stub in the hand will be any pay stub may serve many purposes.

This is because, you should note that there are chances that this is the pay stub that you have to keep for tax purposes.

This information is crucial for deciding whether or not you can take a deduction.

Many employers may also ask you to provide these pay stubs in order to get you the tax refund that you deserve.

This implies they will look at these pay stubs to ascertain whether you are eligible to have the refund or not.

You may also compare your pay stub to the tax rates that have been laid down by the IRS in order to find out if the amount that your employer paid you was within the bracket of taxed wages.

Of course, if you had a means whereby your employer had withheld taxes from the amount you were paid, this will be reflected on your pay stub as taxes withheld.

Also Read: How To Dispose Of Old Checkbooks Safely