by Laura Encinas
Taxes.
The very word leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, like the black coffee in the stained, overheated carafe at a backwoods gas station that turns grey when you add milk. Maybe even extra bitter, week-old gas station coffee, since my taxes aren’t done yet. And April has sprung, so some of you merely look smug, being the happy, organized, efficient individuals who haven’t procrastinated like the rest of us. So I compiled a few pointers for you Type-A’s who filed in January, and a few others for the rest of us to benefit from as we count down to April 14.
Type-A advice:
1) Pat yourself on the back. Even financial coaches like me aren’t ahead of the game like you!
2) If you got a refund, and parked it un-allocated in a bank account, do the next Type-A action and assign it a destination. Tell that money where you want it to go: family summer vacation? Towards replacing an aging vehicle? Christmas cash? Emergency fund? Decide now, or reap the consequences of next year’s Jeopardy question, “where did last year’s refund go?”
3) Finish spring-cleaning. Hopefully you are Type-A enough to have filed last year’s taxes and thrown out whatever documentation you no longer need. If not, get on it! Why clutter your file drawer and make it harder for next year?
4) Tell your procrastinating friends your secret for getting it done early – whether it’s the tax prep software you swear by, or the tax preparer you return to year after year, or your document organization system, it could be a big help. You’d be surprised what might help. I cut a friend’s tax prep time in half by suggesting an envelope system for her receipts, as opposed to her laborious cut-and-paste-onto-blank-pages method.
5) Better yet, offer some hands-on help to your procrastinating friend. I’ve sat down and sorted documents for a friend or family member before; another, less organized year I benefitted from free babysitting that gave me the needed time and saved my sanity.
Procrastinator advice:
1) Just start. Quit worrying about what a big job it is and do something, one small task towards the end result, TODAY. If all you do is put the files on your desk or call your tax preparer, great. You are that much closer.
2) Make a list. List the tasks you need to do to finish the taxes, from counting pharmacy receipts to balancing your checkbook to printing tax forms (if needed).
3) If your taxes are complicated but you’ve always done them yourself, consider spending a little extra for some professional help. Most professionals ask the right questions and have done it enough to streamline the process amazingly. Some even take the entire file – hard copies or Quickbooks – and do it all for you. This could be a big weight off your chest!
4) Make notes as you go regarding what would help next year. If you always forget to calculate gas mileage on your vehicles or find yourself digging for obscure donation receipts, leave a blank page for that in a file marked “2011 Taxes,” and fill the spaces as you make and spend money during the year. Look at you, planning ahead like that. You might be Type-A yet.
5) Ask for help. Quit being an island, let go of the shame cycle, admit your taxes have become unmanageable, and ask for help. Whether it’s getting software, using a tax preparer for the first time, paying a babysitter, bribing your spouse to do it, throwing a “tax preparation party,”or even filing an extension, get brave and creative! Remember, you are not the sum of last year’s tax numbers! Or this year’s procrastination deadline.
Now, go forth and prosper…literally! Uncle Sam needs responsible tax-paying adults like you.
