How To Keep Your Home Office Organized During Tax Season
Tax season is already here, and you may have already received documents like your workplace W-2 and more. If your home office is already full of documents from previous years, and you’re feeling overwhelmed about finding what you need, consider taking a step back and decluttering in time for this year’s filing process. Here are some tips to help you keep your home office organized during tax season.
Use a Home Filing System
Storing your tax documents here and there throughout your house can lead you to lose an important file when you need it. If you leave these documents lying around your home office, it also puts your information at risk. To ensure the safety of your documents and make them easy to retrieve later, use a filing system in your home office. If you have a free drawer in your desk, you can turn it into a filing cabinet by using labeled folders or an accordion file. Just be sure to store the appropriate documents together. You may also want to consider locking the drawer to protect your confidential information.
Scan and Save Your Receipts
When you make business-related purchases, you should get into the habit of collecting the receipts. Often, taxpayers wait until the last minute to gather all their receipts for filing purposes. This leads to lots of confusion and errors. Instead, practice collecting your receipts throughout the year, scanning them, and adding them to your yearly tax file. This practice will make filing your expenses much easier when tax season rolls around. Plus, you won’t have hundreds of receipts floating around your home or office.
Shred Outdated Documents
Another way to keep your home office organized during tax season is to keep up with old documents. After a certain period (check with your tax preparer for more specifics), your old tax documents will become outdated and no longer useful for record keeping. When your old tax files become obsolete, all they’ll do is take up room in your filing cabinet. If your filing cabinet is full of such records, you might wonder what to do with your old tax documents. Clear the clutter by shredding them. You can get rid of items you no longer need and have space for next year’s tax returns.
Remember these decluttering and organizational tips as we approach the 2023 tax season deadlines. Now that you know how to keep your home office organized for tax season, you’ll be ready to file your return with the peace of mind that you have everything you need.