How I File My Taxes as a Work at Home Mom

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As a work at home mom, tax season always gets a bit interesting. We’ve always been more DIY’ers so we’ve gotten in the habit of doing our own taxes every year.

In the beginning, our taxes were a fairly simple task. As we added a few home businesses and some contract work to the mix, things got interesting.

We learned what to do (and not to do) along the way and now we are fairly confident at filing our own taxes, even with a full time work at home income to deal with.

Are you a work at home mom and worried about how you are going to do your taxes this year? Here’s what I recommend:

Keep track of your receipts

There’s nothing worse than trying to track down every little receipt when tax time comes around. One year, I spent weeks hunting through my bank account and digging through files trying to find the receipts I needed. Don’t be like me.

Now I keep a file for my receipts right above my desk so I can pop anything I think I may need later on. For digital receipts (which is often the case), I have a folder labeled “receipts” in my email and I just move those emails over to that folder when I am done with them. Super easy and it keeps everything together so I can find it easily when it is time to do my taxes.

Track your Income and Expenses

The goal is to make things easy on yourself when tax time comes around but the prep work for that starts as soon as you ring in the new year. Fortunately, we are early in the year now so you can get a good start for next year (although you may still be playing catchup tracking down all the information you need for taxes this year).

Keep a thorough record of your income and your expenses so you can have them ready to go when it is time to file your taxes. Having that information organized is half the battle when it comes to doing your own taxes. Keeping a solid record as you go will make things much easier on yourself when you sit down to do your taxes.

Use a Tax Preparation Service 

Tax laws are changing every year and unless you are an accountant, it can be really hard to stay current on them. Not knowing the current laws can cost you money so it is important that you understand what deductions you can claim and understand how the tax laws work.

That’s where a tax preparation service like TaxSlayer can help. With TaxSlayer, you choose your level of service. They offer free life phone and e-mail support so you have help on hand when you need it. Most of the time when we file, everything is so straight-forward that we can handle things on our own but I love knowing that we have a resource to get answers to our questions if we need it.

With over 50 years of tax preparation experience, TaxSlayer knows their stuff . . . which is nice because then I don’t have to worry about being a self-taught accountant. I love that they offer a simple and affordable way to do your own taxes, even as a freelancer.

File now at TaxSlayer.com.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of CLEVER and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

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