Preparing Your Own Taxes Requires Time, Organization and Reliable Calculator

Truer words were never said than the statement there are only two certainties in life: death and taxes. You don’t need to use the services of an accountant or tax firm if you take several steps to ensure you do an accurate job when filing your taxes on your own.

Allot Yourself Enough Time

Your ability to successfully do your own taxes corresponds to the time you allot to the organization, computations and paperwork. It’s estimated that most taxpayers devote anywhere between 25 hours and 50 hours of their time to filing Federal Income Tax returns each year. In order to file your own taxes, you can’t be a procrastinator who waits until April 14th, then sits down with a grocery bag of disorganized receipts from last year and expect to pull an all-nighter. Doing your own taxes won’t seem overwhelming if you start devoting at least an hour a day starting right after New Year’s Day.

Get Organized

Head to your local office supply store and invest in either an accordion file or a box of file folders so you can start sorting all of your expenses and receipts for the previous calendar year. Categories that you will need range from the amounts you paid for such things as payment stubs, medical expenses, mortgage payments, contributions to charities and sales tax on retail store purchases.

Have Proper Forms

If you work for an employer and don’t plan on taking any deductions, you’ll just need the basic forms in 1040EZ. If you own a business or are a freelance consultant with assorted business-related expenses, things get more complicated because you’ll need to fill out additional forms, such as Schedule C. If you don’t receive the forms you need annually in the mail, you can download every tax form imaginable at www.irs.gov

Do the Math on a Calculator

Having a reliable calculator for figuring numbers and totals is essential if you do your own taxes, if only to avoid that “oops” moment that could happen if you add on paper or in your head. A simple miscalculation could trigger an audit and lead to additional funds being owed – ouch! A trusty calculator can help in determining your income, your expenses, deductibles, income credits, and the amount in taxes you have already paid or overpaid.

Triple Check all Your Figures

There’s a reason the tax forms give you duplicate forms to serve as work sheets. Use them to record all of your figures, then when you have triple checked that what you’ve written down in pencil is accurate, that’s when you’re ready to transfer your computations to your final forms in ink.

Only you can determine whether or not it’s worth your time to do your own taxes in order to realize a $100 to $200 savings that a tax preparer might charge you.