ExplainersRetention
What audit retention requires
Retention periods belong to the state, and they are quoted per state. Where a state publishes none, the page says so rather than filling the blank.
A state 911 surcharge is money you collected from your subscribers and held in trust for the state, so the state gets to come back and check the arithmetic. Retention rules say for how long you have to be able to show it: the counts, the rate applied, and the return you filed.
10
Shipped states publishing a period
5 years
The longest period on record
17
Publishing no period
What a retention rule actually says
“Effective January 1, 2016, all books and records shall be retained for a minimum of five years. All books and records shall be available for review or audit by the Department, its representatives, the Illinois Auditor General, and other governmental entities with monitoring authority, upon reasonable notice and during normal business hours.”
The rule applies to carriers, vendors and interconnected-VoIP providers alike. It is read from the Part 1329 text the Illinois State Police posts on its own site; that document is stale on the rate and on the deduction, so the retention duty is cited from it while the rate and the deduction come from the statute.
Every shipped state’s period
| State | Period | What the record says |
|---|---|---|
| AL Alabama | 2 years | Records of the amount collected, running two years from the date of collection. It is a floor rather than a ceiling, and it is shorter than several other states this product covers. |
| CA California | 4 years | Records sufficient to determine the surcharges collected, for four years from the date the surcharge is due. The general recordkeeping duty also appears at §§41129 and 41130 and at 18 CCR Reg. 2443. |
| CT Connecticut | — | Connecticut publishes no record-retention period specific to E-911 surcharge remittance records for a wireline or VoIP provider. The product’s archive keeps them indefinitely, but Connecticut itself states no period. |
| DC District of Columbia | — | The District publishes no record-retention period for a provider’s own 911 fee records. Title 34, Chapter 18 is silent and neither procedures document addresses it. Title 47’s general tax record rules were deliberately not borrowed, because whether they reach this fee is itself unconfirmed, and presenting a duration the District has not stated for this fee would be a manufactured regulatory fact. |
| FL Florida | — | Florida publishes no provider-side record-retention period for this fee. Fla. Stat. §365.174 governs the confidentiality of information submitted to the Board rather than how long a provider keeps its own records, and the state’s general records schedules govern the agency’s copies rather than the provider’s. |
| GA Georgia | — | Georgia publishes no record-retention period specific to the non-prepaid 911 charge, and neither research pass could confirm from a primary source that the state’s general tax recordkeeping rules reach it. No period is asserted here. A provider should keep the counts and the filed returns for at least as long as any other Georgia tax record and confirm the applicable period with the Department. |
| HI Hawaii | — | Hawaii publishes no record-retention period for a provider’s own surcharge records. Chapter 138 was read section by section in both research passes and addresses the confidentiality of proprietary information a provider submits to the Board without addressing how long a provider keeps its own billing and collection records. One adjacent provision is not a substitute and is not presented as one: the chapter requires the Board to have the fund audited by an independent third party at least every two years, which is the Board’s duty about the fund rather than a provider’s duty about its records. |
| IA Iowa | — | Iowa publishes no record-retention period for a provider’s own surcharge remittance records. What ch. 34A does impose is confidentiality: access-line counts and remittance figures a provider gives the state or a board are confidential records. A confidentiality duty is not a retention duration, and the product’s archive keeps the filings indefinitely. |
| IL Illinois | 5 years | The rule applies to carriers, vendors and interconnected-VoIP providers alike. It is read from the Part 1329 text the Illinois State Police posts on its own site; that document is stale on the rate and on the deduction, so the retention duty is cited from it while the rate and the deduction come from the statute. |
| IN Indiana | — | Indiana publishes no provider-side record-retention period for this fee. IC 36-8-16.7 imposes no duration, and no Board rule or resolution supplies one. A provider should keep the period’s counts and its remittance record for as long as their own auditors and any other applicable rule require, and ask the Board what it expects. |
| KS Kansas | 3 years | Three years from collection, quoted identically by both research passes from the state’s own statute text. The duty runs from the time the fees are collected rather than from the filing date. |
| MA Massachusetts | — | Massachusetts publishes no record-retention period for a provider’s own surcharge remittance records. Neither the State 911 Department nor the Department of Telecommunications and Cable states one in any publication either research pass reached. One adjacent provision is not a retention rule and is not presented as one: the statute exempts the monthly report from public-records disclosure, which is confidentiality. Public safety answering point call-data retention is a different rule binding a different party. |
| MD Maryland | 4 years | Verified in statute for the State Fee explicitly. §1-311 does not restate the duty for the county fee; both fees are collected and remitted by the same agent on one report and the Board’s procedures treat the four-year standard as covering 9-1-1 fees generally, but the county-fee-only case is not separately verified. |
| ME Maine | — | Maine publishes no record-retention period for a provider’s own surcharge remittance records. Both research passes searched Title 25 chapter 352 and the Bureau’s published rule chapters independently and found none. |
| MI Michigan | — | Michigan publishes no record-retention period specific to state 9-1-1 charge remittances. Providers commonly hold filing records far longer than any single state requires, and the product’s archive keeps them indefinitely, but Michigan itself states no period. |
| MN Minnesota | — | Minnesota publishes no provider-side record-retention period for 911 fee remittance records. Subdivision 1b authorizes the commissioner to require a certified public accountant’s examination of fees “if necessary”, but specifies no period to keep records for. |
| MS Mississippi | — | Mississippi publishes no record-retention period for this charge. Neither the act nor either Department notice states one, and while the act incorporates the state’s sales and use tax audit and appeal procedures by reference — which would ordinarily carry that chapter’s recordkeeping rule — neither research pass read that chapter, so no period is asserted here. |
| NC North Carolina | — | North Carolina publishes no record-retention period binding a remitting communications service provider. The only retention rule either research pass located sets a five-year minimum and binds public safety answering points on 911 system operational records, not providers on surcharge remittance records; both passes examined it and both declined to borrow it, and presenting it as this state’s provider retention rule would be a manufactured regulatory fact. |
| NH New Hampshire | 3 years | Every record behind a DESC 1, held for three years from the report’s own due date. The rule adds that the records are kept in English, are open to inspection by the Department of Revenue Administration during business hours, and are furnished to that department in hard copy or in a form it can read on request. |
| NJ New Jersey | — | New Jersey publishes no record-retention period specific to this fee. The one published instruction is filer guidance on the worksheet: the confirmation number is the only proof the return was filed, it belongs on the worksheet, and the worksheet is kept for the business’s own files for four years in case of audit — guidance about a scratch sheet rather than a codified retention duty for the underlying records. General administration falls under the State Uniform Tax Procedure Law by cross-reference, and neither research pass pulled that law’s own retention and assessment provisions, so no period is asserted here. |
| RI Rhode Island | — | Rhode Island publishes no record-retention period specific to these surcharge records. The product’s archive keeps the filings indefinitely, but the state itself states no period. |
| SD South Dakota | 3 years | Three years, covering receipts and telecommunications service sales, and open to Department inspection throughout. The Secretary of Revenue may authorize earlier destruction or disposal, and must do so in writing. |
| TN Tennessee | 3 years | The Department’s general dealer retention rule rather than a 911-specific one, reaching this surcharge because the statute imports the sales and use tax procedures and directs 911 audits to coincide with the Department’s ordinary sales and use tax audit of the same dealer. Longer where an assessment is under appeal, until the appeal is finally decided. One research pass sourced the rule and the other recorded that nothing 911-specific exists. |
| TX Texas | — | Texas publishes no record-retention period for 911 fee and surcharge records. Health and Safety Code §771.076 establishes that a provider’s collections and disbursements are the subject of an audit but states no period in the text obtained, and the Administrative Code’s own host has migrated, blocking verification of any retention clause in the Commission’s rules. |
| UT Utah | 3 years | A general tax-administration duty rather than a 911-specific retention statute: the Commission administers these charges using the same procedures as state sales and use taxes, and the assessment period is three years after the day the return is filed — indefinite where a person files a false or fraudulent return with intent to evade, or files none at all. |
| VA Virginia | 3 years | The Department’s general business recordkeeping rule rather than an E-911-specific one, and longer where a longer federal retention period applies. Both research passes agree nothing tax-specific exists: one supplied the general rule, the other independently searched the E-911 article and found no retention provision in it. |
| WI Wisconsin | — | Wisconsin publishes no record-retention period for this fee. Wis. Admin. Code §PSC 172.10(3) requires records substantiating connection counts, prepaid transactions, resale sales and uncollectibles, and states no duration; §PSC 172.10(2) cross-references the general tax audit statute for method, and whether that cross-reference carries a retention or limitation period with it is itself unverified. All three research passes reached the same absence. |
What the archive does about it
A filed period is frozen: the counts as you confirmed them, the engine’s whole computation, and every rate window with its citation and retrieval date, written onto the row and never re-resolved. A correction creates a new version rather than rewriting the old one, so the history of what you filed, and when, stays readable. Export is always available.
And it survives a lapsed subscription: read access and export to the whole archive stay open whether or not the subscription is active, because that record is your audit defense and holding it back over a failed card would be wrong.
This page describes what the states publish and what this product does with it. It is not advice, it renders no judgment on any filing, and it makes no determination about which states are yours — that determination is the provider’s. Every state, shipped or named.