Do you think you’ve got plenty of time because taxes aren’t due until April 15th?

Are you avoiding doing your taxes because you still don’t have a system and it’s a huge job just to get all your stuff together?

You know you’re going to do it eventually so why wait until you need to file an extension? You don’t have to be stuck inside with your paperwork while everyone else is starting their gardens.

Make a list of all the tasks involved in getting your taxes finished.
For example:

• Gather receipts
• Go through check register
• Highlight deductions on credit card statements
• Add up house expenditures
• Make an appointment with the accountant

Do one thing from your list. Do one thing today. Don’t wait until you think you’ll have time to do the whole thing. That never happens.

Got piles? Start sorting Instead of rummaging through a mixture of stuff to pull out just what’s tax related, sort it all out. It’s really more efficient in the long run, and less stressful.

How to sort- Get five boxes or bins. Take sticky notes and label the boxes. Everything should fit into one of these categories:

Taxes-Read-Action-File-Toss

Taxes- all tax stuff goes here, for now. (If you have a lot of one kind of tax documents, like medical, make an
additional box for just that)
Read-magazines, catalogs, things to look over
Action-needs a check, a call, an email, an appointment
File-needs to be stored
Toss-shred, recycle.
NOTE-Be ruthless. Save only what you absolutely have to.

NEXT
Once you have all your papers sorted, they will be much easier to manage. Make taxes the priority; you can come back to the other boxes later.

Sort your tax stuff into the various categories you need to do your return.

Make an appointment with your self to work on it for 15 minutes. Keep your appointment. I know that’s not enough, but just start with 15 minutes. When you finish that 15 minutes, you have my permission to do another 15 minutes.

Get support. Call a friend or your sister. Tell her that you’re going to work on your taxes now for 15 minutes. Ask if you can call her back when you finished.

Breaking it down into manageable bits is the way to go. Doing a little at a time instead of having the expectation you’ll do it all in one sitting is the ticket.

Set up a simple system for next year-now

• Visualize and plan as though the deadline is March 15th or even February 15th
• Each day, put all receipts and paid bills in an envelope. Label it with the month. At the end of the year you’ll just have 12 envelopes.
• At the very least, as it comes in, just put all papers you need for taxes in one place; a folder, box or envelope
• Use software, such as Quicken
• Call me.

I’ll work with you to design set up a simple system for managing all your papers so you won’t have to have tax trauma again!