Streamline Your Tax Season: Tips For Efficient Preparation

Published on March 28th, 2024

Tax season—you gotta love it! One thing is certain: Taxes are a bit easier when you’re readily prepared to get them done in the best way possible.

From saving all of the important forms to keeping your receipts organized, efficient preparation will make a world of difference when it’s time to file your tax return.

Here are a few tips to help you streamline your taxes during the tax season:

Determine How You’ll File Your Taxes

As tax season is around the corner, you may be thinking about the best way to file your taxes.

There are different options, whether you’re self-employed or running a small business.

You could always go old-school and file your taxes by mail. This isn’t recommended and can certainly be a time-consuming way to do so.

There’s also the option for tax preparer software that allows you to file your taxes online with easy-to-follow steps that almost make filing your taxes a no-brainer—almost.

If you really have a challenging time doing your own taxes or filing them for your small business, there’s no harm in turning to the professionals who can help you get money back and so much more.

At the very least, they know how to help you avoid audits and correctly file your taxes.

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Self-Employed? Estimate Your Tax Payments

If you’re a self-employed individual, then you want to be sure that you’re doing your taxes right.

If you’re new to the world of making your own tax payments, you may still be finding your way in the world of self-employment taxes.

A mistake that self-employed people may make is forgetting that they have to make quarterly tax payments.

What then happens is that they end up owing a lot when it comes time to hit the tax deadline, and they’re often charged penalties.

Learn how to file your taxes as a self-employed person so that you can avoid making mistakes like this one.

Remember Everything You Need To Get Deductions

Anyone who knows that they’ll owe money to the IRS is going to want to get as much money off as possible, and this can be done through getting the right deductions.

However, you need to be aware of the kinds of deductions that you can get before filing so that you have time to prepare for them.

For example, there are deductions for things like educational expenses, your 401k contributions, medical costs, home office expenses, and more.

Do a fair amount of research long before it’s time to file taxes so that you’re ready to get the deductions that apply to your situation come tax season.

You’ll be glad that you did the extra work when it saves you money. This is where filing with a tax professional can be hugely beneficial for you.

They can help walk you through the process of reporting expenses and finding the appropriate deductions for your life situation.

Make Sure You Have All The Right Forms

In this day and age, a lot of people have a side hustle culture, and while this may be lucrative in many ways, it’s a bit confusing when it comes to filing your taxes.

If you’re self-employed and making money from different sources, make sure you’re communicating with the people hiring you/contracting you so that you’re getting the appropriate forms for filing your taxes.

In some cases, you may not receive anything from the contractor, but with a substantial amount of money hitting your account, it’s still a good idea to report that income, as the last thing that you want is to be audited by the IRS for tax fraud.