Procrastinate Doing Your Taxes? Here’s 10 Helpful Tips

not procrastinate doing taxesIf you do not know this already, this year the deadline for filing taxes is April 18, 2016.  No more time to procrastinate doing your taxes. Let’s do the opposite of procrastinate.
Three more days is exciting stuff. But be careful with this, procrastinating and doing your taxes at the very last minute is not the best way to go here. We at Check Issuing want to give you a few great reasons why you should hurry up and not procrastinate and just your taxes finished already! There are various psychological causes of procrastination. No worries. These tips will help overcome your problem regardless of which types of procrastination you are suffering from.
There is no need to procrastinate doing taxes with these fast tips.
Remember we offer complete tax form management services

How to Not Procrastinate

 

Money In Your Hands Faster

This one is reason enough to just take some time and get your taxes done sooner than later. Remember we can help with
1099 processing tax services.
If you are expecting a refund then you should receive it shortly after you file your taxes and the IRS accepts it. If you assume that you will owe money than you still have until the tax deadline to figure it all out. But at least you will know soon and give yourself a bit of time to make arrangements.

Don’t Trap Yourself

Don’t back yourself up against the wall here. You have plenty of time to do your taxes without rushing like a mad person. Keep in mind that mistakes happen when you are whipping around and under pressure. You might also forget to include some of your deductions and write-offs. If you have all of your forms and back-up organized then you should have no problem doing your taxes soon or even better have an accountant do them for you. Keep that in mind as well, accountants and CPAs are getting extremely busy at this point and it only gets busier as we get closer to the tax deadline – so do not procrastinate.

You Can Stop Worrying

I can honestly say that the best feeling in the world is when they are completed and filed! You no longer have to think about taxes and getting them finished in time. None of us WANT to do our taxes, regardless if we have an accountant or not. It is not fun and especially if we owe, we don’t want to have one more bill. But the reality of the situation is that we stress ourselves out even more by procrastinating. It’s not like they are going to just disappear. Good organization is key to getting your taxes done properly.
It is still only February, set aside some time and dive in there. See what your financial situation is. Heck, you might be getting some money back and then you win. If not and you owe, at least you have some time to make arrangements. Good luck this tax season, and remember: Don’t procrastinate on our taxes!
Money, its the root of all happiness (that’s how the saying goes, right)? Well, at least that’s how it goes for me because when I get more money from a tax refund, I get happier. There has to be some correlation, right? Well, of course, there is. Tax refunds can be a source of extreme happiness. So the question is, how do we get bigger refunds which lead to more happiness? See what I did there? So let’s look at some ways to help bolster those tax refunds this year because we did not procrastinate.
Check Into Your IRA Contributions.
Did you know that you have until April 15th to set up a traditional IRA for the year prior? This means you can file early and use your refund to open the account. Savvy, huh? Most people don’t know that. Contributions also reduce your taxable income, which really is the key element to a refund of any sort. Especially important for those individuals paid commission and bonus checks.
Check All Tax Deductions.
Many people are afraid of deductions, but really, there are a lot of legitimate tax deductions which everyone should take advantage of. Have you been job hunting or doing volunteer work? What kind of travel have you been doing (autogas and plane tickets and baggage fees)? The number of miles you’ve driven should play a role as well.
Keep records of all this stuff. If you don’t have it right in front of you potentially from being a touch unorganized, go back through your credit card statements and see what you come up with. If you moved that year at least more than 50 miles, there is a good chance you can deduct all kinds of moving expenses (as we all know there are many). And don’t forget the charities you’ve given to, they are deductible as well.
The biggest thing here is to learn to keep track all year long of what you spend on so you have the opportunity to lower your taxable income. You’d be surprised at how many items people never deduct due to forgetting they even spent it! You don’t want to lose out during tax season and procrastinate!
 
Maybe Say No To A Joint Filing Status?
It’s something to look into, particularly if one person has way more deductions than the other. Married couple often think they have to file jointly, but that isn’t really true. Do your research, talk to your accountant…the more you know!
Tax season is literally one of the most terrifying, stressful times of the year. I too procrastinate on my taxes.
When I get 1099, it feels remarkably similar to when I take my first steps inside a haunted house during Halloween. Literally, I have freaked the heck out by haunted houses, I just don’t enjoy ghouls jumping out of doorways at me. My heart wasn’t built for that. Just like it wasn’t built for finding 1099’s jumping out of the mailbox at me.
But it really doesn’t have to be so stressful, not if you make some concerted effort on a  scale, rather than figuring it out right now, like many people do. Planning and small efforts all year round can make right now an easy, stress-free and ghoul free time of the year (I wish I could say the same for Halloween, yikes)! So what can you do? I mean, though obvious, it is always worth repeating a few creeds to live by.

Keep Receipts.

This one is largely overlooked. You buy some software for a new project, a project you are excited about, no one wants to think about the receipt! But you should! You can make this painless by forwarding the email receipt somewhere like a folder you created. Or, download the email to Google Drive. If it’s a store receipt, you could simply take a pic directly to Google Drive or a variety of cloud services. This simplifies things, gets rid of the shoebox and keeps you organized!

Put 30% Back.

Save money for taxes. You need to put 30% of any untaxed income into some sort of savings account so that you don’t get screwed in the end. That’s a pretty good number and most likely you will want to use it all, in which case means big savings for you or a new pair of shoes.

Get On It Early.

Start in January, when you do this you beat the rush, it is easier to get appointments with accountants and any refunds you have a lot earlier! When you do things earlier, you get better service and you aren’t rushed into doing it all at once!
Check out our 1099 filing service and w2 printing and mailing.
Resources:
How to stop procrastinating at work
Doing your taxes online
Strategies to overcome procrastination
Federal tax forms