Your Income Tax Records in Three Easy Steps
The best way to organize your income tax records, all year long! Organizing tax records throughout the year may seem like a daunting task, but it is not real. And once tax time rolls around, everything you need to do is pack your things and go to the accountants, or sit on your computer and do it yourself invested with organized everything and before you!
Imagine, no last-minute search for W-2’s, receipts, mortgage interest statements, etc. There is everything to hand when you follow these three super simple steps.
First Step – Organize Your Income Tax Records
Create a folder at the beginning of each year to all your tax-saving docs throughout the year. Label the folder “taxes” with the current year. For example, this year, would it “Tax 2009 label”. You can also use an accordion file, if you want. The key is to file all your tax related documents in this folder throughout the year.
Step Two – Know What Docs are required to file your income taxes
Know what docs are needed to your tax and a tax preparation checklist file works well for this purpose. Either write this tax preparation checklist on the inside of the file folder that you keep all your tax-docs, or include them on a separate sheet of paper in the folder.
The documentation for the submission of income tax vary depending on your circumstances, but here is a basic control checklist:
* W-2’s
1099 forms if you are an independent contractor, which are composed of at least $ 600 during the tax year
* Brokerage statements of stocks, mutual fund accounts and other investment transactions except IRA or 401k’s
* Mortgage interest statements
* Property tax payments
* Closing statements for all homes bought or sold
* College costs for you or your dependent (s)
* Charitable donations
* Child Care Payments
* Pay child support or receive
* Union duties and professional association fees
Be sure to keep some proof of payment for all deductible expenses. These could be bills, credit card receipts, canceled checks, sales slips, etc.
Step Three – File Your Income Taxes
If you’re not an accountant and decide your own taxes, then check out the ultimate tool for keeping your tax organized – do Intuit’s Turbo Tax 2008 Deluxe.
This tax preparation software guides you through the process of preparing and filing taxes step by step. All you have to do is look at your documents neatly organized, and enter the data as the program asks you. That’s it!
Do your taxes with Turbo Tax costs about $ 40, the hundreds of dollars cheaper than the typical accountant, and it also offers you the tools to maximize your return on investment return you’ll receive the most money.
This year, you keep organized records and the income tax time fast, easy and stress above all!