Once a month has clearly passed without issue, a rent receipt starts to feel like clutter worth clearing out. It's worth resisting that instinct longer than seems necessary — these documents matter most exactly when you least expect to need them.
A reasonable general baseline: several years
Keeping at least the last 3-7 years of receipts covers most practical situations — tax audits, deposit disputes at move-out, and general financial record-keeping in most jurisdictions typically look back within this window.
Tenants: keep receipts until well after moving out
Security deposit disputes are the most common reason a tenant needs old rent receipts — proof of consistent, on-time payment strengthens a case that any deposit deduction was unjustified. Keep receipts for at least a year or two past the end of a tenancy.
Landlords: align with your tax record-keeping period
Since rent receipts double as income records, keep them for however long your tax authority expects business records to be retained — often several years, sometimes longer for certain filing situations.
Digital storage removes most of the reason to discard them
A folder of scanned or photographed receipts in cloud storage takes up effectively no physical space and costs nothing to keep indefinitely — there's rarely a strong reason to delete old rent records once they're digitized.