Save money at tax time for free…

And how?

Be more organized.

A Penny Closer’s blog post about taxes and being organized, reminded me of something I learned:

If you organize your receipts, papers, and everything into neat little envelopes and make it easier for the tax person to do the work to add it all up, she’ll charge you less

No kidding. She isn’t a book keeper! You are! Accountants have told me that they charge up to $50-$200 more just for the fact that everything is in a HUGE box, all jumbled up, unorganized and messy.

Then they have to sort through that hot mess to do YOUR taxes?

Trust me, that service ain’t free.

So if you don’t do your own taxes (either paper or through a software), and need someone to do them for you then do yourself a favour and get a filing system in place.

I like to put everything in little envelopes, labelled, with notes on the front.

E.g. “Medical bills” on the outside, the year in the upper right corner “2007“, and on the envelope, I make quick notes like “Pills, Inhaler, Dentist”, etc.

And I stick it all in a big file folder with my name and the tax year I’m going to file them for in front. 🙂

Then at tax time, I just take out all of the little envelopes I’ve created, and one at a time, I enter in the amounts and expenses into the spreadsheet I’ve created to add up the numbers I need from the receipts, and then I look at one column with the final amount and enter that into the software.

Ta dah!