Since its tax time, its a good time to get your paperwork systems organized. You have to dig around to find everything, anyway, right? Here are a few easy steps to take to make the process easier.
1. Go thru all the folders, piles where you have your financial paperwork and review it ruthlessly. Set up individual files for the different types of paper you are finding - like maybe you have credit card statements, bank statements, insurance statements, purchase receipts.
2. Start one folder that is just for the tax stuff - all of the W2s, 1099s, etc that you receive in the mail go in here, donation receipts, medical receipts - anything directly related to your tax return all go in this one folder. Start one for the current year and one for next year. Resolve to file things away as they come in for next year's tax preparation.
3. Decide how much and for how long you want to keep all of this hard copy. Here is a great article from Consumer Reports about how long to keep things http://bit.ly/ieNS9V.
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