I have receipts for paint brushes & paints that I am hanging onto; I have been told to keep them for 10 years from their date. What should I do with the packaging that my art supplies came with? ie; cardboard or plastic mounts that paint brushes & some times paints come with. What should I do with paints that come in cardboard box sets? after awhile I take the tubes out & put them in my paint drawers.

for tax or insurance purposes, what exactly should I keep? just the original receipt or do I need the boxes packaging etc; that have product descriptions & bar codes.

For receipts, I have read that you write down your expenses/income in a ledger book & keep the original receipt for about 7 years. I photocopied & photographed my receipts & put these copies in a file, instead of handwriting in a ledger book, would these copies/photographs of my receipts be acceptable for tax purposes/running my business or must I keep a handwritten ledger book?

I found the ledger books too confining for varied circumstances & I was not sure about weather I was writing enough of the right info down besides the obvious of; the cost of a given item. for example, on an avarge receipt has the item & price but also store of puchase, store's address, store # (if from a chain), the item # & item bar code etc;

Also an area of confusion was when I did not make all my art purchases myself, sometimes someone bought me some of my supplies or gave me some money towards supplies. would I include these types of receipts & purchases as well in my records? if so, do I make note of it on the backs of the original receipts? or separately in a ledger?