Each year around tax time, I go through all of our personal receipts, bank statements, household utilities, and medical bills/receipts in an attempt to stay organized.
By staying on top of this and doing it just once each year, it’s easier to find the information we need when the time comes for filing taxes.
Now it’s a breeze to find the appropriate support documentation for our tax forms — and for the accountant — each year.
I thought I’d share some of the time-saving tips I use to keep all of our personal, household, and tax info organized, including:
- How long to keep things for taxes and which things to keep
- How to organize all the paper that must be saved
- How long to keep tax documents that have already been filed
- How to find the right shredder for the items you don’t need to save
What Must Be Saved
You don’t need to kill lots of trees to maintain good records. The IRS allows electronic storage systems as long as they provide an accurate and accessible record of the data. Rosenberg recommends scanning your documents onto your computer then backing them up on a CD. Source
You don’t need to kill lots of trees to maintain good records. The IRS allows electronic storage systems as long as they provide an accurate and accessible record of the data. Rosenberg recommends scanning your documents onto your computer then backing them up on a CD.