If you’ve ever donated money to a charitable organization, you’ve probably experienced the immediate and ongoing communications from that charity asking you for more money. While I understand the organization’s need to generate funds, it’s frustrating to me that this is how some of my donation is being used. Is it likely that, having just made a donation, I will make another one so soon? Well, maybe I would if I were disorganized and didn’t know how recently I had…
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Remember back to last spring when you were preparing your taxes. Pretty annoying, right? Didn’t you hate digging through all your papers to find relevant information, some of which was already more than a year old? I bet you made a vow back then that you were going to be more proactive in the future. January is a great time to get things set up for a smooth tax process. As I described in Reducing the Pain of Tax Time, setting up some…
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Let’s assume that you dutifully filed your 2013 taxes in recent months. You’ve got to hold on to your supporting paperwork for three years, since that is how long the federal government has if they decide to audit you. (If that number surprises you, see my earlier post entitled “How Long Should I Keep My Personal Tax Records?”) Most states — including my state, New York — also only have three years to audit you. (You can check your state here.)…
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Now that April 15 is safely behind us, it’s time to start thinking about how to make tax time easier next year. I know you’d rather not think about taxes again for another 10 months, but taking a few small steps throughout the year will alleviate much of the pain. The key to simplifying tax time is to keep track of your tax-related income and expenses throughout the year. Throwing everything into a shoe box and then trying to make…
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Very often, when I am helping a client go through a huge pile of paper clutter, the client insists that any piece of paper that has his/her name and address on it must be shredded. I have tried to convince my clients that this wasn’t necessary — after all, your name and address are easily obtained on the Internet –but most of them were not reassured. Thus I was excited when I heard about a class last year for organizers on the…
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