Peace of Mind Organizing

It's tax time!

23 January 2009

I can’t believe I’m thinking it’s tax time and it’s only January. I literally can’t remember the last time I filed taxes before April 15. I think it was in the 80s, when I filed Form 1040-EZ. The truth of the matter is that I’ve been self-employed since 1995 and in that time I’ve probably have filed an extension more often than I haven’t.

But this year things are different. This year my husband has kept meticulous track of our personal finances. And I’ve stayed on top of my business’s finances, so we’re in a position to file early. Since we should be getting a refund, it’s in our best interest to do so. I use Turbo Tax to file taxes and my plan is to file them by the end of the month.

I have some emotional money issues and it’s very unusual for me to contemplate dealing with taxes without feeling dread and anxiety. I think one of the reasons this year is different is that I don’t have to search for anything. The data are in the computer (Quicken for our personal finances, Quickbooks for my business), all the supporting documentation was filed at the time the data entry was done, and anything that’s come in the mail has been immediately filed in a tax folder.

I use Freedom Filer for our household files. One of the great features of this filing system is its two tax sections. The light-blue current tax section is a place to segregate and store tax-related papers for taxes that haven’t yet been filed. The other tax section is dark blue and is for taxes that have been filed. Once the taxes are done, everything moves to the tax archive section which is stored away from my more active files.

When I set up my light-blue tax files in 2007 I realize now that I broke them down into too much detail. Since I write off my home offices, my utility bills and some other receipts are tax-related. I created files for each of those types of bills (telephone, utilities, etc.) and I now think I’m going to reduce the number of files by using broader categories. This will make filing easier. And since the data are in the computers, I don’t even need to sort through the receipts and tally them to do my taxes. I just run reports.

If you had told me even two years ago (I filed my 2006 taxes in October 2007) that I’d be filing my taxes at the beginning of February, I’d have declared you crazy. It’s hard for me to express the feeling of accomplishment and control that I have knowing that I’m able to do this. (A big shout out to Shannon Wilkinson, my life coach who helped me make some money breakthroughs in 2007.)

If you’re a position to do your taxes now and you delay until April 15 out of habit or because you hate doing taxes (or even gathering the info for your accountant), I encourage you to consider doing them sooner, rather than later. (Of course, if you owe money to the IRS, it behooves you to wait until April 15.) The taxes have to be done, so you might as well get it over with. And just think of how great it will feel to get it behind you.

While you’re gathering up the info, observe how you store the information and think about whether there might be an easier way to do it. Freedom Filer might be just the thing, especially if you don’t use financial software to keep track of your finances. If you do use software, think about entering the data more frequently to make tax time easier. My husband does it daily. I strive to do it weekly. (So far, I haven’t succeeded at that, but it’s a new year.)

When that refund arrives in February, I’ll be walking on air. If I can do this—remember, I’ve been known to file taxes in October—so can you.

Tagged with: control, freedom filer, shannon wilkinson, taxes

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