For many, spring is the season for cleaning and setting a person’s house in order. But there’s no reason to wait for April showers to roll around before getting your tax documents properly stored. After all, by that time, your tax bill will be due!
To avoid scrambling to come up with receipts, health bills and other paperwork, here are several tips for proper document storage shared by BankRate.com, The Container Store and the Indiana Department of Revenue.
Save sparingly. Keep documents that identify sources of income, track expenses and identify property value. Also be sure to keep past tax returns and supporting documents. As a rule of thumb, you should plan to hold onto tax documents between six and 10 years. That decades-old McDonald’s receipt, though? Toss it.
Shred when possible. Yes, there are documents you can get rid of. These include bank-deposit slips for transactions that have cleared your bank account, as well as financial news articles or magazine clippings that are gathering dust.
Delete technology trails. You don’t want someone hacking into your computer and stealing tax information. That’s why you should save an electronic copy of your tax return on a USB drive or another external location and delete the original from your laptop.
Have fun planning – and basking in the glow of the time you’ll save yourself next year.