Before you go to file your personal taxes this year, think of the things you can do to simplify the process. By reducing the time your accountant spends wading through information and looking for missing documents, you will reduce the time you’re being billed for.
We put together a list of questions to ask yourself before you reach out to your accountant and start the tax filing process. While Accountfully focuses on business taxes, we also do our clients' personal taxes since the two are often intertwined.
But before you download our checklist, here are two things to do moving forward that will help expedite the tax filing process in the future:
Move It To The Cloud
If you're still receiving paper statements, go online and update your account preferences to have everything be managed online. Online statements are easier to access, easier to keep track of, and easier to share. And if you have important physical documents? Scan them and put them in the cloud. There are a variety of online file sharing tools that encrypt data and make it easy to share files. When it comes time to file personal taxes, all of your documents will live in one place rather than in different drawers and file cabinets—saving everybody headaches and time.
Take A Personal Inventory Day
Schedule time once a quarter to take a personal inventory day and review your personal budget, expenses and outstanding to-do's. Getting everything organized one quarter at a time simplifies the tax filing process. Not only is there less to weed through when it comes time to file taxes, the details of transactions and expenses are fresh and easier to remember.
Sure, filing personal taxes can be complicated, but there are many ways to simplify the tax filing process. By leveraging technology and being proactive, business owners and entrepreneurs can ease their tax season stress. At Accountfully, we partner with our clients to improve processes and efficiencies–demystifying taxes is just one of the many ways we help.
Accountfully offers outsourced accounting services nationwide, with offices in Charleston, SC and Nashville, TN. If you would like to see how outsourcing your accounting can work for you, tell us about your business and we will gladly schedule a chat to discuss more.
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