It's tax time again!

15 February 2010

As I’ve blogged about before, it’s a miracle that mid-February it feels like tax time to me. In years past, I’ve put off even thinking about taxes until April. And sometimes August. And sometimes October. (Never past October, though.)

But here it is just past Valentine’s Day and I’ve already started. This year, I’m taking it in small bites, rather than devoting a bunch of hours at once, simply because of my schedule. And I’m not feeling overwhelmed. Here’s why:

I’m caught up on my business’s bookkeeping. (And I even double checked everything.)
My husband takes care of our personal finances and he deals with data entry daily, so he’s never behind.
TurboTax is already purchased and installed.
All the tax-related documents that have come in the mail since the first of the year were placed in the Freedom Filer Odd Year Tax folder the minute they came in. So when I sat down to start the taxes, I just grabbed that file.

If getting together the information you need to give your accountant or do your taxes yourself is a chore this year, I encourage you to think about what you might be able to do to make it easier on yourself at tax time next year. Something as simple as creating a file or box that you can immediately put tax-related documents and receipts into can be a huge time saver. (And help you avoid paper clutter and piles.)

Doing the taxes doesn’t have to be so painful that you procrastinate until Uncle Sam’s breathing down your neck. Keeping up with the data entry (if you use financial software) or promptly filing paperwork (if you don’t) can turn tax time into a mere inconvenience.

Tagged with: freedom filer, taxes