Tax Tips for Procrastinators

Like a train in the night, you can see the tax deadline approaching. You can hear its long, lonely whistle coming closer, but for some reason, you still haven't organized your tax papers.

Don’t worry, you are not alone. In most tax offices, the last day of tax season is also one of the busiest.

If you’re the type that likes to put everything together at the last minute, here are some tips to help:

Organization.  Assemble all your documents before you start adding up figures. A little extra time at the beginning can save you a lot of trouble at the end.

Charitable Donations.  If you made a lot of charitable donations, go through your credit card and bank statements to make sure you didn’t miss any small ones.

IRAs.  If your numbers aren’t looking so good, you can still contribute to a traditional IRA all the way up to the tax-filing deadline as a way to reduce your overall income.

Haste makes Waste.  The clock is ticking. You’re in a rush, and you just want to be done with it. Make sure to avoid these common last-minute errors:

• Math mistakes
• Transposing numbers
• Getting important information like Social Security numbers wrong
• Signing your return

If possible, put aside your return for a day and then come back to go over everything one last time.  You may be surprised at the simple errors you’ll catch.

Next year, see if you can get an earlier start. Taxes can be stressful enough without a deadline looming over you.