Categorize your tax information when you receive it. Compiling all the data required for your tax submission will be a lot easier.
Archive for Taxes
Many of us are planning for the holidays and looking forward to some downtime after a busy fall. Great idea. What’s top of your list when you get back to the office in January?
With a little forward planning, by the time you get to April, you’ll be focussed on those new clients having signed off and sent off your annual tax return. If you are still working on a paper-based system, consider booking time with yourself in your 2012 calendar, before it gets booked with client appointments, to sort the receipts.
An accordion file makes a great receptacle. With 13 pockets it can stand on a shelf, in a file drawer and be labelled by month to receive receipts, invoices and any other relevant paperwork.
Are you staring at a shoe box of receipts? Here’s a quick and inexpensive way to get those receipts tamed. Pick up an accordion folder at the local office supply store with 12 sections, one for each month. Label the sections. Start by filing the receipts by date into the appropriate section.
Some people prefer to file by category. Date or category, it doesn’t matter. They all have to be accounted for at tax time and how you group them is up to you and based on the volume of receipts.
If it seems overwhelming, consider contacting a local high school student whom you trust and offer to pay the them to file the shoebox of receipts for you according to month. This is a great opportunity for the student to learn the benefits of organization and practise some basic filing skills. In addition, what you will need to pay the student is tax deductible and much less than your accountant is likely to charge you to accomplish the same thing.
It’s the end of the first week in February – have you turned over your year end yet?
Are you still mixing 2008 invoices/receipts with the new 2009 items?
Have you collected your 2008 documentation for year end reports and income tax preparation?
Do you have a designated location for your 2009 invoices/receipts i.e. e file/folder, paper file, folder, envelop or even a plastic bin?
Have you opened up a new file/folder for February 2009 so that January 2009 can be easily identified/located/sorted/recorded ___________ (fill in your own blank).
How much does your small business/home-based business pay in bookkeeping fees?
Would a little more organization reduce that for you?
What could you reinvest in your business with the proceeds?
