Our owner-loan documents are older than three years, but the balance is still on the books. Do those records still belong in the Form 5472 file?
Part of my team wants to archive only the recent years and let the older material drift away because the age alone makes it feel less important. The problem is that one of the related-party balances on the books today started several years ago, and the original loan support is exactly what explains how that balance got there.
That makes me think the age of the documents is not the real test. If the old agreement and initial transfers are still part of the current-year balance story, I suspect they remain material even though they came from a much earlier year. I want to know whether that instinct is right before we strip the file down too aggressively.
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