is deleting my account the only way to delete my purchase history?

No. Even deleting your account won't remove the purchase history from Apple servers. Purchase History is required to be kept due to fiscal regulations. Apple must maintain this data for tax reasons.

You cannot hide your purchases anymore than you can hide them from your credit card or bank. They will always have a history of all charges made with a card in their system.

It may be your objective is only to hide purchases from casual browsers and not necessarily delete them from the history of the universe.

Click on this link to learn how to 'Hide purchases from the App Store '- Hide purchases from the App Store - Apple Support

- "You can see your purchase history, but you can't remove apps from your purchase history."

- "If you don't want to see an app in your list of purchases in the App Store, hide it."

- "When you hide an app, it won't appear in your list of purchases in the App Store. If you use Family Sharing, the app also won't appear in family members' purchases and won't be available for family members to redownload. But the app will still appear in your purchase history."

- "Hiding an app doesn't cancel a subscription. If you use Family Sharing and you hide an app that you subscribed to, the Family Organizer will still be notified of charges each time the subscription renews."

You can't delete subscriptions from your purchase history but you can hide them. See this document: Hide purchases from the App Store; click here --> https://support.apple.com/HT201322. Confusingly it only mentions hiding apps but according to Apple (as Recommended in: how do i delete an expired subscription - Apple Community ) subscriptions get hidden too.

Hide and unhide music, movies, TV shows, audiobooks, and books - Hide and unhide music, movies, TV shows, audiobooks, and books - Apple Support - "To hide or unhide music, movies, and TV shows, use your Mac or PC. To hide or unhide books or audiobooks, use your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or computer." "Hiding an item doesn't hide the record of purchase. You can still see the item in your purchase history." Has to be done on a computer through the Apple Music app, Apple TV app, or iTunes.

anonymousse121 wrote:

What about the free apps!? How are they helpful for tax records. Why are they retained!

All Apple publishes is in the guide for AppleID deletion -> How to delete your Apple ID account - Apple Support

“When you delete your Apple ID, Apple makes our best effort to delete all personal data associated with your account. However, we are required to retain past transaction information for financial reporting purposes, and we may be required to retain certain information to comply with a court settlement or other ongoing legal procedure.”

Remember that the software licenses they sell and distribute in the App Store is not for their corporate intellectual property. They are distributing software licenses for other people’s and other companies products, so as the seller of record, there may be multiple reasons why they have to keep transaction records.

anonymousse121 wrote:

this is a big stupid thing apple has currently. i believe no other phone has. this is just imposing something on us that we do not want to see; "hey you purchased an item we know and we wont delete it even if you want to!"

Android users cannot delete their Google Play purchase history either. Nor can Sony PS Store users delete their Sony PS history. The companies offering these online software stores are required, by law, to retain their customers purchase history. Apple has no option but to do so, just like every other online purchase provider.

Just as with AppleIDs if you delete your Google Play account, Google itself must retain your purchase history on their systems.

anonymousse121 wrote:

What about the free apps? shouldn't they have an option to be deleted?

Regardless of how you would like it to be or how you think it should be, right now, you can't delete your history, just hide it. You can let Apple (who doesn't read here for feedback or suggestions) what you'd like to see here:

Product Feedback - Apple

You can switch to an Android if that makes you feel better. But, it won't delete your Apple purchase history.

this is a big stupid thing apple has currently. i believe no other phone has. this is just imposing something on us that we do not want to see; "hey you purchased an item we know and we wont delete it even if you want to!"

They might be retained because people would delete the apps. They would then then bitterly complain that Apple was being mean to them by not letting them redownload them in the future even if Apple told them they might not be available if they deleted them, the app was pulled from the store by the developer, and then they wanted to download it again. That's the way people are.

The bottom line is we don't know why they won't delete the records. If you can get Apple to tell you then by all means have a go at it.

If you don't like the way Apple does things then click on this link for Apple products feedback links --> Product Feedback - Apple

Apple may not respond but your comment will be read.

What about the free apps!? How are they helpful for tax records. Why are they retained!

So you give them two options to hide and delete. For example when you delete a picture it goes to deleted folder and then if you delete the picture from deleted folder it says it will be permanently deleted and you select whether you want it or not. Why not do the same thing here. I’m sure people are not bitter about a picture they deleted permanently; they won’t be about this either. As simple as that. I guess I can write a feedback for now.

from what I read they don’t delete for tax purpose but I don’t understand why a free app worth no money is required for tax purpose!

The bottom line is nobody posting here for sure really knows why and if we keep on guessing then this topic will go beyond what is allowed by the terms of use of this forum in terms of speculating on Apple's policies and will get the whole thing axed. :-)

Oh, you need to be on this forum for a long time the way some of us have and you'll see what people are bitter about. :-D

What about the free apps? shouldn't they have an option to be deleted?