Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance

With the holidays upon us, tax season is just around the corner. How can you prepare in order to avoid a stressful and potentially costly return? Here are a few tips from a tax professional to help you avoid any anxiety from the Inland Revenue for 2009.

1. Gather all necessary documentation long before you sit down to prepare your taxes.

Much of the stress associated with preparing your taxes has to do with finding the proper documentation. Take the time to find all tax-related material before your self-assessment form arrives in the mail. Whatever system you use, whether it comes in the form of tax software, a tax preparer, or your own grey matter, you can’t file your taxes if you don’t have the right information. You also can’t claim deductions if you don’t have any evidence they existed.

Note for 2009: Create a system where you gather all this information into one file from the start of the year, rather than at the end of it. It will make 2009 tax preparation much easier a year from now; in fact, it may just require you to pull a manila envelope out of a file drawer and set it on your desk.

2. Categorize and tabulate your receipts.

If you haven’t been saving your receipts up until now, number 2 might just work as a “note to self” for next year. Hopefully you have been saving all tax-related receipts, and now is the time when you sit down, put them into their proper categories, and tabulate them.

Note for 2009: In that file we mentioned above, include an envelope for tax-related receipts and begin saving them January 1^st.

3. Calculate twice, record once.

The Inland Revenue states that maths errors are the biggest mistake taxpayers make when filing their own returns. The Inland Revenue already has access to much of your financial information, and if you make an error when transferring that information to your return, or if you make simple addition and subtraction errors when working with those numbers, you’ll quickly receive a correction notice from the Inland Revenue. So calculate twice and record once.

4. Recognize that tax saving is a year-round task.

There are things you can do year-round in order to increase your tax benefits, especially if you have your own business. Find out what these are and begin doing them. You may be weary of enlisting the help of a professional tax preparer, but the truth is they can often save you much more money then you’ll pay them in the end.

Note for 2009: Consult with a tax professional to see how tax planning might benefit you in the 2009 tax year.

5. Don’t procrastinate professional help.

If you wait until April 1^st to enlist the help of a tax professional, chances are you’ll be out of luck. That’s the busiest time of the year for most tax preparers and they’ll be hard-pressed to fit you in that late in the game. Consult with a professional early in the year and come equipped with well-organized documentation; you’ll be ready for a stress-free tax season.

Note for life: As your tax situation becomes more complicated, a tax professional makes more sense. Tax laws can be confusing and deductions difficult for the layperson to recognize. There comes a time when the benefits of a tax professional far outweigh the costs. In fact, often a percentage of those benefits (and perhaps a percentage of your enhanced tax return) pays for those costs. Don’t wait another year to see if that time has arrived. Visit a tax professional today!