As the end of the year begins to loom close, it is time to start thinking about the early year tax season that is almost upon us. Organizing Your Tax & IRS Information is something you can begin taking care of now. This will help you to be ready when the W-2 forms arrive in the mail in mid to late January of next year.
Organizing Your Tax and IRS Information
Gather All Documentation: Some items you will have to wait for after the first of the year, bu things like receipts and bills from throughout the year can be pulled and sorted already. While you may have more to add to the stack, at least you will have them neatly organized and sorted to make it easy to add to as new items come in.
Sort By Type: Sort receipts, bills and other miscellaneous documentation by needs and type. Receipts for education, child care, personal expenses and business expenses should all be separated. Envelopes or file folders are great for keeping these in until time to finalize your taxes.
Create Spreadsheets: If you haven’t already, take the time to go through your existing receipts and list them into a spreadsheet. This will give you easy access to a total for your taxes in one click. This also gives you a chance to sort out any documents that aren’t necessary for tax purposes.
Make Note Of What You Need: Once you have sorted through your existing paperwork, you can sit down and make a note of what is missing to file your taxes. Your tax documents from employers, mortgage, stocks and education credits will all arrive sometime in the month of January. Having a checklist created will help you know what is missing at the end of the month. At that point you can refer to your list and make phone calls as needed to retrieve information.
Getting your tax and IRS information organized ahead of time will take a lot of the stress out of filing your taxes this year. As we organize our homes, our goal is to make things run smoothly, and ultimately to help stay within our budgets. These things do go hand in hand. Organizing your tax and IRS information is key to staying in budget and staying on top of key financial needs within your household.
{52 Weeks to a More Organized Home/Life}
If you have any of the hoarding tendencies we describe in this post, you may want to work on getting organized for the New Year. Getting organized and staying organized always seem to be on my list of New Year’s Resolutions. Would you like to join me in getting organized for 2015? Each week we will tackle one area of the home to help you get organized, reclaim your sanity, and save money since disorganization can lead to spending more or missing out on discounts.
Are you interested in actually getting organized for 2015? We have worked extensively on a series to help you get organized in 52 weeks. If you would like to receive these emails about how to get your home organized in 52 weeks, you can sign up to receive just ONE email per week. You can sign up at any time during the year without missing a beat.
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