Oh, the dreaded tax season. This is NOT something I have been looking forward to. As you may recall, I quit my job last year and began freelance work. I love working for myself even if it is sometimes a bit stressful wondering if I’m going to find enough work each month. I do not love being responsible for paying Uncle Sam my tax fee. Having taxes taken out of my check each pay period was a beautiful thing.

Last year I did not do a good job of keeping track of my expenses from my freelance work. About October I started stuffing receipts in a box and about that same time I started an excel spreadsheet to track my income. Oh, the agony of not keeping up with that from the get go.

The majority of all my work is done in this little area. I have shelving on either side of this area in an attempt to stay organized. Here’s what it looks like when its nice and neat.

I wish it looked like this all the time. Sadly, right now it is stacked with papers, books, trinkets, and lord only knows what else. There is probably a few bills buried in there that need to be paid as well. Really need to get it cleaned up again. Anyways, I digress…back to tax time and being organized for it.

I started working on my taxes this past weekend and the first thing I had to do was empty the box of receipts and sort them into expense categories. Then I had to figure out all my income. Thankfully, the majority of the time I am paid by paypal so I could just go in and print off my deposits. It took me a couple days to make sure I had all my expenses, income, W-2′s, 1099′s, etc. It was not fun. Lesson learned.

Here are some organization and tax time suggestions to make my and your life easier for next year’s tax season.

1. Start a folder or envelope for all your tax receipts. Don’t forget to include things like donation receipts, property tax payments, utility bills, home repairs, etc. If you work from home you can write off a portion of your utilities so make sure you keep track.

2. At the end of each month gather up all your receipts and check stubs. Write all your expenses and income down on a sheet of paper for the month. Attach everything together and place in an envelope. This is going to make tax time so much easier. Just think, next year at tax time you’ll just gather up the 12 sheets of paper and transfer the info to your tax forms Oh, that sounds so divine.

3.I like to work in pencil when it comes to figuring my taxes. I like having an electric pencil sharpener to keep my pencils super sharp. My last sharpener died about a year ago so it was time to buy a new one before starting this years taxes. I found the X-ACTO Spira at Walmart.

Be sure to print a $3 coupon here to save some money on your sharpener. You can see my #XACTO shopping experience here.

I’m hoping that by following the above that I will have a much easier time next year doing my taxes. I’m also going to keep much better track of my expenses. I have a feeling I would be paying in a lot less this year if I would have kept more receipts. I’m trying not to think about the check I have to send on April 15th.

Be sure to follow X-ACTO on facebook and twitter.

How do you stay organized for tax season?

disclaimer:  this shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. #CBias All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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