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Answers/The life queries

Where to keep tax records encrypted for seven years without a subscription

Tax authorities in most countries expect you to keep records for six or seven years. A subscription you pay every month for that window costs many times what a one-time tool costs, and it stakes your records on the vendor still existing. A local encrypted folder is the smaller shape.

One folder per year

'taxes-2024', 'taxes-2025', and so on. Inside: the return itself, receipts, statements, W-2s or their local equivalent, correspondence. When a year is closed, seal that year's folder into a bundle and archive it.

Where to keep the sealed bundles

One copy on your working laptop. One copy on an external drive or USB stick. Optional: one copy in your cloud provider — the bundle is opaque, so it is safe to store there without them seeing the contents.

Why Elba fits

One HTML file that opens in any Chromium browser, forever. Source becomes free in 2030 — well within the seven-year retention window for records you file today. If the makers vanish, the format is still openable.

Questions people actually ask

What if I get audited?
Unseal the relevant year's bundle. Provide only what is requested. Re-seal when done.
Can I share a specific document with my accountant?
Yes — unseal, copy the file out, share by your usual channel.

Take the island

Elba is one HTML file. It runs locally in a Chromium browser, seals a folder with AES-256-GCM, never phones home, and becomes open source on 1 January 2030.

  1. €49MMXXVI· now ·
  2. €39MMXXVII2027
  3. €29MMXXVIII2028
  4. €19MMXXIX2029
  5. FreeMMXXX2030

the price falls each year · free to all 1 jan 2030

Take the island — €49
pay once · no account · nothing leaves

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