Tax Time – Try Not To Stress!!

It’s that time of year once again and as that old saying goes:

There are only three things in this life you HAVE to do:

1. Be Born
2. Die
3. AND PAY YOUR TAXES

The first two on that list are pretty self explanatory and we all do whatever is in our power to live a full, happy and healthy life—but then comes the third—–OUCH!  It is bad enough that we have to actually pay out our hard earned money to Uncle Sam, we also have to get all the stuff ready to either give to the accountant or do ourselves.

The easiest way to not stress about tax preparation is to keep folders all year long so you are not scrambling to find those tax receipts for that bottle of pills or the letter (or email) that states that YES, you did give to the Literacy Site, the Cancer Site, etc.  You can also use one of the many business software packages, tax depreciation tools or a spreadsheet to keep track of all your income and expenses (or a combination if you would like).

One of the easiest for most of us is to make a tax folder in our email labeled 2014 Tax stuff -so anytime you get an email that has anything to do with tax time-transfer it in-at least you will know where to find it!  For the paper receipts—buy an expanding folder with separators and label each section; medical, contributions, pay stubs.  If you are an independent contractor make sure to have separate sections for income and expenses for that as well.  It does make life easier if you can figure out how to use business software, you can categorize in there and most of them will allow you to email directly to your accountant or you can print it all out for ease so you can do those pesky taxes yourself.

One thing is for certain, your taxes have to be done one way or another so why not make life a little easier and keep track of your tax paperwork all year long?  A few minutes a day is all it takes, if that – then all you have to stress about is will I owe taxes or will I get a tax refund!