Keeping your tax paperwork organized all year

Tax paperwork rarely arrives all at once. A form comes from an employer, a statement from the bank, a property tax bill, a receipt for a donation. By the time a return is being prepared, some of it is in a drawer, some in an inbox and some in the car.

Keeping it together takes one place for everything and the habit of putting things there as they arrive.

Pick one place

A single folder works, on paper or on your computer. Keep only one, so you always know where to look. Paperwork that comes by mail goes in the folder the day it arrives. Paperwork that comes by email gets saved to a computer folder with the same name, or printed and filed with the rest.

What tends to arrive

• Forms from employers and from anyone else who paid you
• Statements from banks and investment accounts
• Mortgage and property tax statements
• Receipts for things you want to ask us about, such as medical bills, childcare or donations
• Letters from the IRS or New York State

Write down what changed

A short note in the folder helps as much as any document. Did you move, marry, have a child, start a side business, sell a home or change jobs? Changes like these are the first questions we ask, and a note means none of them is forgotten when we sit down together.

Keep a copy of what you send

When you send documents to us through the client portal, keep your originals in the folder. Once your return is finished, add a copy of it. Last year's return is a useful starting point for the next one.

Look through it now and then

Once a month, take a few minutes with the folder. Is anything missing that you expected by now? Does anything belong to someone else in the household? If a form you were waiting for has not arrived by the time you are ready to file, tell us, and we can talk about what to do.