Did you have all your receipts for tax-deductible expenses this year? If not, here are some easy ways to keep track of all kinds of receipts. Often when we get a receipt we are in a hurry. We stuff the paper into our pocket, purse or wallet and forget about it. The receipt then joins all the other pieces of paper, which clutter up our lives.
The easiest way to assure receipts don’t get lost is to keep a manila envelope with a clasp in your purse or briefcase (for a wallet designate one section for receipts only). At the end of each week (or every few days if you tend to accumulate a large number of receipts) sort through your receipts and place them in an accordion file with letter tabs under the appropriate category. Categories can be as follows: tax deductible expenses, reimbursable expenses, retail items, large ticket retail items, gifts (in case they need to be returned), and car repairs. An easy way to stay motivated to do this is to give yourself a reward each time you make a deposit in your accordion file. The reward might be something good to eat or make up a point system for yourself and give yourself points when file receipts. When you get enough points buy yourself something nice.
If you have only retail and repair expenses you may use a coupon organizer to store your receipts. If you are required to produce copies of your tax deductible or reimbursable expenses you may want to paste these into a spiral notebook or insert them in page protectors and keep them in a binder. If you own a scanner you can also scan them into your computer.
Check out our post on How-To-Avoid-Being-Audited at Womanwork.net
Tags: organize it, receipts, tax deductible expenses, tax records