No need to feel “taxed”!
Do you know where all your receipts are? Your life insurance documents? What about your children’s daycare receipts, or the bill for the magazine subscription that you purchased for your office last year? If you’re not organized, tax season can be an incredibly stressful time of year. However, taking a few simple steps to track your receipts now can make for a stress-free tax filing this year — and for each year going forward. Try these easy organizational tips below...
Find your receipts. Now.
While you’re probably dreading the inevitable search through your night stand or desk drawer to find receipts relevant to your tax filing, the time to do it is now — not right before you’re about to file your taxes. Check your favorite stash spots for wayward receipts and ensure you’ve got them all in one central location.
Tax-free Work Perks: Do You Know What You’re Missing?
Check into all of the ways you can lower your taxes at work. If your employer covers your moving, counselling or educational costs, you may be surprised about how many things you can claim as deductions. A little homework up front may result in some pleasant news for a change at tax time.
Shred what you don’t need.
As you’re searching for your relevant receipts, you’ll probably discover a lot of irrelevant ones along the way. The majority of people’s common household receipts aren’t needed for tax purposes. If you don’t need it — dispose of it. We recommend making a pile for shredding or secure disposal and another for items that can just be thrown into the trash. Getting rid of unnecessary clutter is one of the first steps in getting organized.
Sort and organize.
You’ve sorted out what you need and what you don’t — now it’s time to organize all of that relevant paperwork into easy-to-manage piles. We suggest getting some large envelopes or folders to ensure that everything has a place. Take some time and think about the type of organization that makes sense for you as you organize all that you want to keep. This is an important step in the organizational process that is too often overlooked — and it applies to your tax receipts, life insurance policies and more. However you choose to sort your documents, it’s important to ensure they’re properly labeled. For tax time, that likely includes the year and an overview of the type of receipts being filed.
The Bottom Line
Tax time doesn’t have to mean stress for you. Good planning, research, and careful record keeping are among the simple tools you have at your disposal to ensure your tax season runs smoothly.