5 Ways to Use Your Planner to Get Your Taxes in Order

Filing taxes can be a real mess—literally. Before we’re done, most of us have rummaged through our medical bills, home improvement expenses, business costs, pay stubs, receipts, charitable donation slips, and anything else we can find that might help reduce our year-end tax bill, or possibly add to our return, if we’re getting one.

Sorting through all that paperwork takes time and leaves us with stacks of paper on the counter, desk, or even the floor. But what if we sorted these papers as they came into our home? What if we had a designated place for all things tax related that could make filing taxes easier?

Guess what—you already do.

1. Use your daily planner pages.

Your planner is the ideal place to track your tax-related activities. Mark in your planner when you give charitable donations, pay medical bills, purchase items for your business, or spend money on energy-saving home improvements. As you mark these items in your planner, note the value of your donations, or the price you paid.

2. Add a Financial Plans Supplement

None of us like surprises at tax time. There are few things more stress inducing that being blindsided by your accountant asking for a year’s worth of expense reports or the depreciation amount of your rental property. It may be even more chaotic if you’re filing your taxes without the aid of an accountant, and suddenly realize you need information you haven’t gathered.

The Financial Plans Supplement helps remove those surprises with a comprehensive package of financial forms from Monthly Expense Trackers and Monthly Budget Worksheets, to a Yearly Income and Expense Tracker. You’ll also find forms for Financial Accounts, a Home Project Record, Bill Tracker, Personal Property Record, Yearly Investment Tracker, and several others. You may not need all of these forms, but chances are, you’ll find the ideal tools to track what matters most to you for your financial peace of mind.

3. Coordinate your filing cabinet with your planner.

Here’s another suggestion. Set aside a drawer in your filing cabinet for your tax related paperwork. Create folders for each item you report for tax purposes, whether it’s medical expenses, property expenses, income statements, or investment receipts. In front of each of these folders keep a paper with a running total of the income, expenses, and donations you are making throughout the year. As you pay bills, give donations, or incur business expenses, mark these expenditures in your planner, file the paperwork away in your filing system, and note it on the paper in front of the folder.

Use your Prioritized Daily Task List to remind you of these steps, so you don’t fall behind. The next time you file your taxes, it will be a simple matter of opening your file drawer and entering the number at the bottom of the page in front of each folder.

4. Use Page Flags

Use page flags in your planner for a quick reference of information you may need when filing your taxes. Color-coordinate your page flags for different expenses. For example: use blue for medical, red for business, green for home improvements, yellow for donations, etc.

5. Keep track on your Monthly Index Pages

Keep a list on each monthly index page of tax related activities that occur during the month and the date that they happened. This will make finding any additional information related to your income or expenses quick and easy later, if necessary. Simply turn to your Monthly Indexes, find the date the event occurred, turn to the page when that event happened, and you’ll be able to read the notes you took regarding that event and recall the other activities of the day.

None of us want to face an audit, but if we used our planners to their fullest potential, we would be able to manage any sort of scrutiny related to our income, expenses, and our standing regarding our taxes.

If this year’s tax deadline is looming and you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed, remember that next year can be a lot easier. Start easing your tax burden today.