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Taxes - Oye

shades of bliss

shades of bliss

bolʹshie koshki
Joined
Nov 16, 2007
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So my sweet wonder DH decided to get the taxes at 9:00 pm. one night this weekend. And of course he's like I need blah blah blah. So I run downstairs and look. Now just so you know it's be a year since I've done any filing. So it takes a while. Then he's like oh and now I need blah blah blah...on and on. And I know it's my fault because I really should keep up with the record keeping up.

Soooo now that you've read about my trauma, I want to know how you keep your records. How long to do you keep your bills? Do you file right away or do you put it off like me? Do you shred the bills when you are done, or just toss away? Do you put them in a box or a filing cabinet? Do you do your taxes, or take them to someone? :groan
 
I keep statements & stuff like Doctor bills (things I can write off) and shread everything else. We haven't done ours yet, but DH put more into his company than he got back this year so he thinks we will get some $$$ back. Since starting his business, we take our taxes out to get done! THANK GOD!
 
Oy Ve! Hopefully you can sort thru it all! I have a file cabinet that I keep things in that has files for each different section. I shred after a year if I don't need them for tax purposes. I then have a tax file for each year that continually thru the year I will put things in there that I will need for filing! It's a system that works for me I guess.
 
i keep bills maybe 6mths but don't even know why i do that at all.... i usually just rip them up a few times and off they go to the trash. that covers utilities, cell phone, etc. i can always check past bank statements electronically if they are disputed. i never need anything like that for tax purposes.

the things i do keep in a file cabinet are all medical stuff, mortgage statements, tax statements (ie property tax), investment stuff (just for the year)... trying to think of what else. i have envelopes in my "inbox" labeled 20XX taxes in which i stuff goodwill receipts, contribution receipts, work related receipts (ie uniform dry cleaning, new equipment receipts, etc.), etc.

i have always done our taxes... every once in a while, i will do them and then take them to a professional to compare... and i've never had any issues with what i've done.
 
well i never hoard anything and thats bills included and you can guarantee i will need it at a later date,drs bills we dont have cause we have nhs,tax we dont do here and most of my bills are online now so no need for bills there,i do have a diary with all the bills written in for the month so i know whats coming out the bank and i tick it off as they go and balance what i have left to spend but this is only after getting in a mess so learning the hard way
 
Because I am self-employed, I do my own tax return - oh joy! I try to keep on top of my accounts every month, then it's just a case of putting all the numbers in at the end of the financial year. In theory.... :lol

I used to keep bills for ages, now I just keep the last couple of months worth of paperwork and the rest gets shredded, although like Karen a lot of ours are now moving to a paperless online system which is much better.
 
I have a couple filing cabinets in the office with folders for each bill. I don't keep utilities though, just credit cards, mortgage bills, investment statements, bank statements. You are supposed to keep tax records for 3 years but I keep them all. You just never know. Every couple years I go through the files and shred the things older than 2 years. It works and I can always find things. I also have a basket upstairs for receipts.

Since I prepare taxes for a living I always have prepared our returns. I keep a folder for each year with the return and all the backup. I start one for the next year as soon as it starts so whenever I see a tax related item I can just slip it in the folder. I always prep our return early too because we always get money back. But that is because I have them withhold too much during the year. It is really not a good plan since I am basically loaning the government money with no interest.
 
for the past 2 years i did not keep up with my filing very well. i worked as a personal assistant and one of the things i often did was file months upon months upon months of paperwork. it just made the filing at home awful.

but, i'm back on track. i have baskets across my lateral filing cabinet and one is dedicated to filing. i file about once a month.

since i'm self employed i have to keep proof of my expenses - like the electricity bill, phone bill, etc. otherwise those would be shredded at the end of the year.

like lisa said - we have to keep things for 3 years here. when i was preparing for this year's taxes i shredded everything from the 2006 file except our actual returns. then i pulled everything from 2009 - shredded what i didn't need for tax purposes and started filing fresh for 2010.

when i became self employed we started having our taxes done. prior to that the military did them for free. i'm really glad we have them done by someone because we have 2 college students that we partial claim and my consulting business.

i'm like amy that i have one folder dedicated to 2010 tax receipts. mostly for charitable contributions as our out of pocket medical bills don't qualify. we almost did this year but not quite.

we've already filed for the year. because my husband retired from the military in 2009 - he had a lump sum severance pay that was automatically taxed at 28% so we will be getting a refund! :happydance2

otherwise my husband detests/abhors...letting the government have our money for a year interest free.
 
Darn it. You all are not making me feel better about the mess in the basement, lol. No one just throws it into a box? LOL

Normally we get serious money back. Like over $10,000.00. Which makes this daughter of a cpa's skin crawl. But my DH likes it that way. And since he's making the money, he is setting the withdrawal. But lately the stock market has been creating havoc with your gains and losses so this year we are paying a couple of dollars to the state. So I guess in the end, I'm happy that I am not writing a check today for $10,000.00 (even though it is still terrible what he does the whole psychology thing might be worth the money we are lossing by doing his withdrawal that way).

Do you all keep things like appliance instructions? Do you shred like daily, weekly or wait like a year? I think I need to pay the kids to shred. I have a tendency of breaking shredders. So I should probably be doing it more often. But I would rather scrap.
 
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