Make Tax Time Easier: 2 Things You Need

Tax time can be a painful time for lots of people, but if you have some tools up your sleeve, it doesn’t have to be that way.

Oh, yeah, I know where that’s at.

I’ve got a new person in my life: an accountant.  Oh yeah, she rules!  On our first meeting, she commented that I was pretty organized.  When she asked me for something, I knew right where it was.  Remember the mantra, “Organized = finding what you need in 5 minutes or less”.  She helped me get things squared around, including a pretty strong recommendation that I move everything to Quickbooks.  (Which I am doing in short order!)

It’s tax time, do you know where your stuff is?

When it’s time to do taxes, do you have a little black storm cloud over your head?  Do you have piles of paper, receipts and unfinished bookkeeping around?  Does your family avoid eye-contact for three months leading up to April 15?  It doesn’t have to be that way!

I’m not an accountant.

You might be, but honey, I’m NOT.  But, I do have two things I use throughout the year that make filing taxes a little less painful.  You can do it too.  Here’s what you need:

Accounting system:  It doesn’t have to be a software, because even a paper ledger bookkeeping book works too.  Whatever you use, stay on top of it, preferrable monthly.  Stay on top of it, and tax time will be just gathering information from….

A place to put the accumulation of important papers. Two words: two folders.  Have two folders for gathering the tax papers throughout the year: “Current Year” and one for “Past Years”.  What to do with them?

In my “Past Years” folder I have an envelope with contains any backup paperwork, tax forms and the like filed away in there, marked with the year.  Why? Because it seems I need to refer to at least last year’s information at least once during the filing process.

The “Current Year” folder is a receptacle for receipts, donations, 1099s and other statements needed to get the tax filing done.  Don’t worry so much about having them perfect: just get them in there.  You’re going to thank me a year from now.  Really.

What’s your Tax Time trick?