Tax Tips for Unorganized People
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Does it always seem like you’re struggling to get everything together for your accountant? Tax season is never a good time for the disorganized. The good news is there are things you can do to make next year easier. Let’s take a closer look at some tax tips for unorganized people.
Purchase Deductible Items Separately From Personal Items
If you need to purchase something that can be deducted as a business expense, purchase the item separately. This will prevent the need to go back and highlight all your purchases that are business expenses. If, for any reason, you do end up purchasing something along with your personal items, highlight it immediately and file accordingly.
Create a Spreadsheet of Expenses
To make your and your accountant’s lives easier, sit down at the end of the week and add your expenses to a spreadsheet. If you have expenses for different businesses or ventures, have separate sheets. You can add a column for date, item, price, and any other information you need to include.
Make Storing Receipts Easier
Have a place in your home office for filing your receipts. At the end of the week, after you’ve entered your expenses into the spreadsheet, file the receipts along with any statements and other paperwork you need to file. When you do this once a week, it’s much, much easier to stay on top of things.
Purge and Shred
If you’ve been holding onto papers for years, now’s the time to purge. Go through your paperwork and purge anything you don’t need. Shred anything that has personal information that could lead to identity theft, such as Social Security or account numbers. If you’re unsure of what to keep, check out this resource from Consumer Reports: How Long to Keep Tax Records and Other Documents.
Consolidate
Last, but not least, to make your life easier, consolidate as many of your financial accounts as you can. You’ll have a lot less to keep up with. If you find yourself scrambling to gather all your statements for various banks, choose the bank that has the best interest rates to be your bank.
Tax season is never fun, but if you’re unorganized, it’s even worse. Take the time to make a place for your tax records so that next year isn’t such a nightmare. Also take the time to purge all the paperwork you no longer need so that your home office isn’t overrun with papers. Lastly, address the paperwork in your home office on a weekly basis.
