If you take a long time to assemble all necessary documents to prepare your tax return think about being better organized for next time.
Here’s a few useful tips from Omnibus Organizing in the San Francisco Bay Area:
- As with all filing, the important questions isn’t “where should I put this?” but “when I need it, how will I find it?”
- The first question leads to those beautifully labeled files that are never accessed (about 85% of filing, according to the NAPO Statistics). The second question will help you save time by grouping things together you’ll need at tax prep time.
- When setting up home business files – consider using the headings from Schedule C, that way you just copy over your totals.
- When paying utility bills, use your bank’s online service then, at year end, you can download that info into Quickbooks or Excel and quickly calculate your deduction.
- By taking time to organize your system properly, you will save money because you won’t overlook a deduction and will continue to save time every tax season.
- As you add a new year to your filing, remember to remove and shred old documents.