Collecting, organizing and preparing tax documentation is overwhelming. I think it is because the information you need comes to you in a trickle through the mail, your email inbox and your own receipts - little by little - every day for weeks like Chinese water torture.

So I have come up with a few ways to alleviate my anxiety and take the torture out of tax preparation.

1. Have a file, box or basket to put ALL incoming tax information.
2. Make a master list AFTER you file your taxes this year of the documents you needed to find. Above is a picture of my list.
3. Set aside  a 3-4 hour chunk of time to organize and prepare your taxes in one sitting. I actually look forward to this day. :)

After I file our taxes in early February I purge our filing cabinet. The first time I really did this it took days and I was able to get rid of 80% of what I had.

 

Download my FREE Printable - To Shred or Not to Shred

 

So I thought and thought and came up with this simpler, yet still cool, system. I already had colored hanging files {which I LOVE!!} and I assigned each category in my filing cabinet a color.

Then I purged each file as I put the contents in the new colored file.

 

Tax time has been a breeze the past few years because I have kept up with my business taxes each month.

Having been in business for myself for over 20 years, I know how hard it is to keep everything organized. This year I disciplined myself to do my finances in my business all by myself DAILY!

Each month I would reconcile and do my tax prep on the 1st of the month. I actually started to look forward to it because I have created a checklist and form to fill out each month so I didn't miss any expenses.

Each month I knew how much I actually made. I was able to continually refine my process and reduce my expenses.

This year I had my graphic designer make my pages in to adorable printables and they are available in my ETSY shop both as a digital download or printed with divider tabs in a DUO Binder.