Are you Tired of digging through Paper-Clutter just to do your taxes every year?
If you are sick and tired of having to dig through piles of paper clutter each and every year just to file your taxes this article is just for you! In today’s article, WOW Organizing will provide you with some tips on how to declutter paperwork as well as reduce the stress this tax season.
In fact, organizing paper clutter is truly one of the major key factors in having a less stressful life as well as a more organized home or office. Furthermore, today’s paper clutter solutions that we will provide you will most certainly help you get started in the right direction this tax season.
Ready for Tax Season?
We hope the answer to the above question is another one – you mean 2021? But…the following comes from a small business owner friend of Wow and the scenario is typical for many of us:
I sat down this weekend to do my taxes. Just like every year I went through the big ziploc bag of receipts. Like every year, I sorted them into months. And like every year, I wrote down the receipts in the monthly log.
After that, I performed the yearly ritual of adding up the purchases by category, month by month, followed by the annual rite of adding the months together, putting together my yearly expenditures and transferring all the number onto my tax documents.
Finally, it ended the way it always does – with the customary edict of me telling myself I should keep my paperwork better organized this year!
There are so many simple solutions that can save us so much time and improve our life exponentially – not just with taxes but with everything! For today, we will focus on taxes though in order to keep this blog post concise and readable. In fact, let’s now take a look at the Top 3 Tips to help reduce stress this tax season.
3 Tips To Organize Your Paperwork & Reduce Stress This Tax Season
Organize Receipts: Start at the Beginning
Ideally, we all do our book-keeping as it comes in. We bring home a receipt, put record it in our records and tuck it away and add the ledger as we go. But there are a lot of intermediate levels between this and the annual free for all described by the client above. Below, find a few tips for helping you keep your finances straight throughout the year.
First of all, if you don’t record your transactions as they occur, at least separate them. Begin by getting 12 large envelopes, bags or containers. It needs to be something you can close!
Number the containers with the numbers one through twelve. Do you see where we’re going with this?
As you get receipts for each month, put them in the corresponding numbered container or envelope. By the way, if you prefer, write the month on each. Whatever makes it easier for you!
If that’s all you do, you’re already ahead of a lot of the people who drive accountants crazy! But there’s more you can do to make your life (or your accountant’s) easier.
Organize Into Common Deductions
You probably already know the basic categories of items you can write off. If you’re a small business owner or sole proprietor, those categories are:
- Utilities
- Repairs and Maintenance
- Supplies
- Advertising
- Wages
- And Many More!
For individuals and families, common deductions include:
- Mortgage
- Charity
- Retirement Contributions
- Interest on College Loans
- And again many more – you know what you usually deduct!
To take the next step to make your life easier, get smaller envelopes that will fit into your larger envelope or container and write your categories on them. Then put that months’ receipts into the corresponding category envelopes. Afterward, immediately put the envelopes into the numbered container. You don’t want to get another month’s receipts into the envelope.
These envelopes are so effective because even if you misplace a receipt for a while and find it weeks or months later, you know exactly where it goes without having to search.
Final Book-keeping
Finally, you will want to fill out the total for each category for each month into a corresponding log. There are many monthly and weekly bookkeeping logs you can buy online or at your local office supply store. There are also programs like Quickbooks for your PC or Mac that help you keep track of expenses. It’s easiest to do all this as expenses come in but even if you’re like our small business owner friend who wrote us above, your life will be made infinitely easier if you’ve presorted everything.
As a bonus, this will help you out if you’re ever in the unenviable situation of being audited!
What do you do with your tax information? Are you methodical? A procrastinator? Do you have any tips you’d like to offer? Please share your knowledge and experience below. Until next time, good luck and good organizing!
home office declutttered and organized