Читать книгу Family Financial Freedom - Floyd Saunders - Страница 19

Organizing Your Taxes

Paying taxes doesn’t rank high on anyone’s list of “favorite things to do”, but the job can be made a lot easier if you plan and organize you tax records, which we will discuss next.

The easiest way to organize your records is to set up a series of files in which you place all of your monthly income and expense receipts. Try to avoid just tossing your financial information into an old shoebox. Keep a file for your major purchases, as they may be deductible. Also keep track of any unusual expenditures. Most people need files for receipts and bills in the following areas:

Expenses

1 Mortgage payments

2 Loan payments

3 utility bills

4 auto expenses and repairs

5 Insurance (Life, health, auto and homeowners)

6 Medical bills

7 Education expenses

8 Child care

9 Donations and contributions

10 Property taxes

11 IRA contributions (and/or other retirement accounts)

Income

1 Paycheck stubs

2 payments received from interest or Dividends (keep the 1099 forms at the end of the year)

3 Mutual fund statements

4 Rental property

5 Other Income

You will also want to keep files for moving expenses, business expenses, casualty losses, and anything that is included in your income or expenses.

These receipts will provide you and your tax preparer/accountant valuable information as your tax returns are being prepared. Your tax advisor may ask you a number of questions, having receipts at hand will make finding the supporting information that much easier and potentially increase your tax returns.

At the end of the year, after you have received your completed tax return from your tax advisor, gather your receipts together and place them with copies of your tax return in a new file marked “Income Tax Records for Year ____.” Keep your income tax records for at least seven years. The IRS may call for an audit on only the last three years, but depending on your tax situation there may be a tax credit or other deduction that gets carried forward from year to year and you may need to access that information.

Other Records To Keep

It’s very important to retain all of your receipts, work orders, cancelled checks and other documents related to the purchase and improvement of your home and other real estate. You will need to these records to document capital gains or losses when you sell your property. Also keep all of your records relating to investments for seven years, and the year-end statements for all IRA and retirement accounts.