Don't become overwhelmed by last-minute preparation for filing your taxes! Learn how to organize and store tax-related documents and receipts throughout the fiscal year. Plus, find tips for what important documents to keep, and which to toss, so that when tax season rolls around, filing is a breeze!

What to keep and what to toss

The biggest questions in terms of tax-related documents tend to be, "What to keep?" and "For how long?"

• Shred: There's no need to save all your ATM-withdrawal receipts, credit card receipts, and deposit slips.
• Keep for a year: After you receive final, end-of-year summaries for monthly credit card statements, paycheck stubs, mortgage statements, utility bills, and brokerage or mutual fund reports, you can typically throw out all those monthly statements.
• Six years: The IRS has up to six years to audit you after you've filed your taxes-which means it's probably a good idea to keep the following documents around for six years:
  • 1099s and W-2s
  • canceled checks
  • investment portfolio records
  • letters from recipients of charitable contributions
  • medical expenses
  • alimony
  • child-care bills
  • home repairs and improvements
  • mortgage-interest statements
  • property-tax payment receipts
• Indefinitely: Keep hard copies of all of your tax returns indefinitely. If you hire someone else to do your taxes, make sure you are given copies. If you only have hard copies of your tax returns, scan them as PDFs to create a digital archive for backup, and store the originals somewhere secure.

Start prepping with scanning

Scanning makes record-keeping neat, searchable, and compact.

• Scan and resize your legal-sized documents. Take cumbersome, legal-sized documents, such as deeds and contracts, and turn them into easy-to-file, letter-sized documents by reducing their size through scanning.
• Use OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software. When you scan documents using OCR software, your data is electronically translated into a form that your computer can read-allowing you to easily search for digital documents using keywords and phrases.
• Scan as you go! Avoid future frustration by scanning and filing tax-related documents as you receive them throughout the year. After scanning, keep digital files safe on a portable drive, stored in a safety deposit box or other trusted location as backup.

Tools to get organized

When you have the right tools, it's much easier to consolidate and organize tax-related documents:

• Double-sided printing. Consolidate your tax returns, receipts, and financial records into easy-to-reference copies that fit more conveniently in binders and filing cabinets. Even if your printer doesn't support automatic double-sided printing, don't worry. You can still print double-sided manually by putting the paper back in your printer tray and printing on the reverse side.
• An all-in-one printer. Many all-in-one printers-often called multi-function printers-offer copying and scanning in addition to printing-some even let you fax. When you have all these features in one machine, it'll be convenient to organize your tax documents, all year long.
• TurboTax software. When it comes time to actually doing your taxes, it's simple and safe to file with TurboTax, an online software package. It displays your refund or tax-owed on every screen and updates the amount as you answer questions. Plus, TurboTax protects your personal and financial information, storing it right on your computer, password-protected.

Find more tips for making tax season easier, plus get a free copy of TurboTax.

Find a all-in-one printer to help you easily scan important tax documents.

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