And Here We Go ...

It is here – tax season has officially begun.

Not that you really needed me to say that because you have probably been receiving some forms in the mail that remind you of the fact.

But what have you done with those forms?

Good tax preparation can be done in small places, and this question highlights one that you get right at the beginning of the process. If you bring your pieces of mail in and toss them on the counter, it may look like a manageable pile to start, but if you wait until sometime in March to really start putting them together, what are the chances things will remain neat and easily accessible?

But wait, you say, you’ve been getting most of your stuff via email, so you don’t have to worry about tracking it down again. Just how well do you have your inbox set up, though? If you’re going to be able to return in six weeks and find all your forms exactly where you want them to be, then you may be a better human than most. Many, though, will be trying to figure out just who sent something they are now trying to track down.

Either way, where these plans start to fall apart is in the idea that you can only do anything with the forms when you’re ready to move forward with your tax return. For no matter how good a human you are, many people are just not ready on February 1 to start putting all the real numbers into their return. In fact, many people won’t even have received everything they need at that time to do so.

At TSBAS, we have a portal for our clients where they can upload their tax documents and when they do so that doesn’t mean that it trips some wire where they are completely ready to go. Sending documents as you go, though, offers the comfort that you know exactly where the information you need is going to be when you are ready. And just imagine, that way, as soon as you do get that last bit of information you need, you only have to send one document to us and know in that exact moment you’re good to go.

That one small change will keep ahead of the game, can give you a significant leg up and make things feel much better when we are standing at the end of the tax season and not the beginning. So even if it’s still really early, don’t start procrastinating now.

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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