Organizing the paper copy of the EGTRRA document

[Jim Chad]

In looking at the EGTRRA Volume submitter document, the adoption agreement has 24 pages of 7 appendices, (some of which need to be signed). In the past I have put the adoption agreement in the first section of a 3-ring binder.

I am looking for ideas on how to organize this.

I am going to try to write a table of contents. But since each appendix starts numbering at 1, that will not be great.

Another thought, some of the appendices may not apply. Do we need to give those to the client? When I give the document to an IRS auditor: do I need to include the appendices that do not apply? My first thought is no to both questions. But they are part of the approved document, so I'm not sure.

Related question: This year I am going to keep an electronic copy. Do people keep signed or unsigned copies, electronically?

[J Simmons]

Seven appendices? That does make managing--and interpreting--the documents more difficult. No suggestions on your organizational challenge.

As for keeping electronic copies, I suggest keeping the signed copies in case you ever need to prove out of your file copies what has been signed and when.

[GMK]

I second J Simmons' recommendation to keep the signed originals on file. You might also keep pdf's of the signed copies.

For your electronic records, if those files are from a word processing program, make a pdf copy or save the files as text (ASCII) files, so you can read them in 10 years. Otherwise, when you get a new version of Word or whatever, check that it can still read your oldest saved files. Similarly, if you scan images in, keep the software that can recreate those images. Every now and then with a software upgrade, you can't go back and read the older files. (And that's no fun when you're relying on electronic document storage.)