TAX PREPARATION 101…oh no!
The dreaded date of taxes is up and coming soon. Who’s a bit nervous? Have you done your part to be ready? Are all your papers in order? Do you have a good idea of what you owe?
Well, don’t feel alone or in the lurch of the unprepared if you aren’t ready. And while you take deep, calming breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth, read on and these simple tips will help you feel calmer and more able to handle taxes. If not that, you will have done some healing breaths and will at least have some good oxygen in your lungs and more to your brain so you can think more clearly.
First, Make yourself a folder (expandable if you plan to itemize). This article will be geared more toward the itemizer. That usually means you are a homeowner.
Place this in an inconspicuous yet easy to reach place.
Throughout the year, place any donations immediately put them in the folder
Once you start receiving tax documents, keep placing them immediately and directly into the folder.
Around the end of January, it’s good to open the mail and go through and see what you have. It’s a good idea to separate benefits from house items, retirement from bank statements and separate the weird various items off to the side, like care registration health expenses, and receipts if you do any home business.
When you have all your items, then you either make an appointment with an accountant or a tax preparation place like H&R block. I have used both and depending on how safe you want to be, you may want an accountant if you are very conservative. If you aren’t as concerned and don’t have a lot of paperwork, H&R block is the most economical and easy way to go.
Lastly, you can do the taxes yourself, and this is a very economical approach and not such a bad idea if you have had the same job, same investments over the years, and not much has changed in your life. A really easy way to do this is through Turbo Tax, which will pretty much walk you through easy cheesy and you usually are done in an hour. But it gets confusing if you have some odd tax documents. The very cool thing is you can do this all online!
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