A term answers one question, for one law
A legal retention term says: under this law, this kind of record must be kept for this long, starting from this event, by these organisations. That is what each record page shows: one law's point of view.
One record, several laws
Take a payslip. Several laws look at the same document, each for its own reason:
| Law | What it says | From |
|---|---|---|
| Fair Work Act 2009s 535(1) | 7 years | Not stated in the Act |
| Income Tax Assessment Act 1936s 262A(1), (4) | 5 years | Later of preparation or the transaction |
| Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992s 79(4) | 5 years (SG) / 7 years (Fair Work) | Later of preparation or the transaction (SG) |
| Privacy Act 1988Schedule 1, APP 11.2, APP 4.3 | Destroy or de-identify | No longer needed for any permitted purpose |
Each row is correct. Together they do not tell you when the payslip can go. Records: employee pay records, business tax records, superannuation guarantee records, personal information no longer needed.
Four ways terms differ
1. The period
Five years under one law, seven under another, thirty or forty for some health monitoring records. The same file can carry more than one.
2. What starts the clock
Seven years is not one date. It depends on the event the law counts from:
- Company financial records: 7 years, from the transactions are completed.
- Customer due diligence (KYC) records: 7 years, from the business relationship ends.
- Notifiable incident records: 5 years, from the regulator is notified.
- Company books after deregistration: 3 years, from deregistration.
Sometimes the law does not say. The Fair Work Act sets 7 years for employee records but not when they start.
3. No period at all
Some laws require a record to be kept but set no end point:
- Minute books and resolutions: no period stated.
- Marketing consent records: no period stated.
- Asbestos register and management plan: keep current.
4. A duty to destroy
Not every term is about keeping. 3 record pages on this site carry a duty to destroy or de-identify, such as personal information an organisation no longer needs (Privacy Act, APP 11.2) and tax file number information (Privacy (Tax File Number) Rule). Keeping everything for the longest period can run into these.
And the law changes
Terms are only as current as the law they come from. Every provision on this site shows the date of the text it was taken from; the oldest is Privacy (Tax File Number) Rule 2015, as at 4 March 2015. Part 10 of the AML/CTF Act, which sets the AML/CTF record-keeping periods, was rewritten from 31 March 2026.
A schedule answers a different question
A retention schedule answers not "what does this law say?" but "what does our organisation do with this record?" A reference of individual legal terms, like this one, can't answer that, and isn't meant to.
From legal terms to one schedule.
WhenToDelete is powered by ScheduleOne, which holds the full database of Commonwealth and state retention terms. ScheduleOne works out which apply to your business, works through the competing terms, and gives you one schedule, kept current when the law changes.
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