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Tax season is upon us. Again. For those of us who’ve known how to secure tax documents from the first day of adulthood – or earlier – no big whoop. For those of us who are a little more creative with our ideas about how to organize taxes – and the huge amounts of digital and print documents they create – this time of year can cause stress.
If you’re in the latter camp, join the club. Organizing anything can be a chore, much less the small scraps of paper, letters, and email receipts sometimes necessary to file taxes. To lessen the burden, we’ve collected some helpful tips for storing tax documents and keeping them safe and secure until you need them. This is not tax advice, but advice about how to minimize tax time stress by learning how to secure tax documents once and for all.
Tips for Storing Tax Documents Securely
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1. Get the right supplies
Investing in some high quality and purpose-built tax storage containers will help you get organized from the get-go. We like the Really Useful File Box from Staples if you have the need (and space!) for it, or the more discrete Calm Document Box from Marie Kondo’s line at The Container Store. Some organizers swear by desktop organizers for file folders. Whatever floats your boat: just make sure to get something that is dedicated to the art and pursuit of securing tax documents.
2. Get consistent
Tax time can seem overwhelming if you haven’t put forth a consistent effort to manage your documentation and organize your income and expenses all year. Avoid the stress by picking a time every week to work on it. According to certified home organizer Ellen Delap, breaking up a large task into a smaller, repeated routine is key to making progress while minimizing anxiety.
3. Get a dedicated space
If you want to really know how to secure tax documents, we’ll let you in on a little secret: location, location, location! It is critical that you find or create a dedicated space to store your important papers. No jamming them together in a bag on the counter or shoving them in the junk drawer. You need a safe spot, away from high-traffic and heat, for your documents. Not only will putting your papers in a removed storage spot protect them from harm, it will help keep you organized because you’ll always know where your important items are kept.
4. Get organized digitally too
These days, a lot of receipts and forms are emailed rather than mailed. While this definitely minimizes the amount of paper documentation you have to store, it also creates two different sources of information, which can be frustrating if you’re not organized. Every January, create an email folder for your personal taxes and label it with the year. (Create a different one for any business taxes.) As email receipts come in, store them in the correct digital folder. For bigger documents that you have to download, keep a folder in Google Drive, Dropbox or something similar to save them all in. At the end of the year, cross-reference any paper documentation with your digital documentation to make sure you’re not posting something twice.
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5. Get familiar with what you need to keep track of.
Tax deductions are one of life’s great gifts. But if you’re not completely sure what you can deduct, it can be tempting to save everything – or nothing. Bone up on common tax deductions at the beginning of the year so you have them fresh in mind as you go about your daily spending and receipt gathering. When in doubt, save it.
6. Get a receipt organization app
Taking pictures of receipts and storing them in a receipt organization app is one great way to securely store your tax documents. Instead of worrying about fragile paper copies of receipts, you’ll have them all documented and organized in a single place. Some apps even do the hard work of “reading” the image for information and inputting it into the books for you. Shop around because price points vary, but these apps can be worth their weight in gold when tax season comes around.
7. Get a receipt scanner
Receipt scanners are also a useful tool – that might even be a tax-deductible home office expense. Digitizing and organizing all your important papers online can be a lot easier than trying to sort through paper copies. If you devote time to scanning and cataloging your documents each week, you’ll have a beautifully organized and up-to-date collection to show your accountant (or, worse case scenario, the IRS).
8. Get very clear on what you must keep – and how long you must keep it
You don’t have to keep every tax receipt or record you’ve ever had in your entire life, but there are some that you need to hold on to for longer than you might think. Check out this handy guide to recordkeeping for small businesses from the IRS and this piece from US News & World Report for more info on what you need to safeguard and for how long.
9. Get on the same page
If you’re filing jointly with your spouse, or own a business with one or more other people, you will need to try to get on the same page in terms of recordkeeping. It won’t do you any good to learn how to organize taxes and get hyper-focused on the exercise, if your “significant other” derails your efforts. Take time at the beginning of each year to realign on what to keep and where and how to keep it. This small investment of effort will pay dividends come April.
10. Get ready to enjoy your spring again
If you follow the steps above, and stay consistent and dedicated throughout the year, there’s a very good chance that tax season will come and go without causing any great agita – or taking you away from your family and friends for several Saturdays in March. What will you do with all your free time?!
Again, none of the above is meant as tax advice. We are not accountants. We just like to minimize stress through organization – and if that involves a write-off or two, so be it.
