Those of us who have small jewelry businesses hate thist time of year. Doing my taxes is my least favorite chore. However, if I’m organized, it saves ma a lot of time. Here are some steps you can take to become organized before filling out your tax forms.

Difficulty Level: average      Time Required: 1-2 hours

1. Save your receipts throughout the year in a box you can close securely.
2. At tax time, take your box to a quiet place that has a large surface area available such as a desk or kitchen table.
3. Gather scrap paper, post its, pencil, your mileage book, Schedule C form, paper clips, and a calculator.
4. Using a piece of scrap paper, make a list of all the categories listed on the Schedule C such as office supplies, travel, adverting, etc.
5. Divide all receipts from your box into piles according to the categories you listed.
6. Use post its to label each pile according to their category.
7. Use the calculator to add the total up of all the receipts in each pile, and add this total to the corresponding post it.
8. After each stack of receipts is totaled and labeled, use paper clips to secure the receipts together.
9. On a piece of paper, list all 12 months of the year.
10. Now add the mileage you (hopefully) recorded in a mileage book per month and record these on your list per moth.
11. Next add your 12 month totals together for your total year’s mileage.
12. Finally, list the totals of each receipt pile on the category list made in step 4.
    

1. Save a copy of this year’s tax forms together with your receipts, so you have them for next year’s taxes.
2. A box that allows you to put hanging folders works nicely for storing receipts as well as previous years’ tax information.
   

Related Features:

• Tax Planning: US at About.com
• Small Business Information at About.com