Taxes Due. Death Certain but Pending.

What day is Monday, April 30^th (less than four weeks from today)?

It?s the tax deadline! Well, if you?re Canadian. In the US it?s April 17^th. I hope there weren?t any American readers depending on me to announce the tax deadline.

If you have yet to file your taxes, I?ll bet that reminder made you feel a lot better.

1) If you haven?t filed or even started, get going today!

Carpe diem. There?s no time like the present. Never put off until tomorrow that task which you can do today.

I know, easier said than done. Preaching about the evils of procrastination is probably the most hypocritical sermon that I could ever deliver on my blog.

I filed on March 18^th, but I was ready 2 weeks earlier. I was only delayed by Questrade. For some reason they couldn?t post my T5. Not cool. But after a terrible customer service experience, a manager personally gave me a phone call and $25 cash for my trouble. If they hadn?t recovered from their error so well, I?d probably have written about the experience very negatively. Instead, it was an example of excellent customer service. Good work Questrade. But I digress.

Just get going. How? Get your tax booklet (or tax prep software), slips, and receipts together. If you don?t have everything, start doing your taxes with what you do have. Also, make a list of what you need to find and start sleuthing, Sherlock.

2) Make it easy on yourself.

It?s a fundamental rule of human motivation that we prefer to do easy things first, before doing harder things. So make your taxes easy.

In February, I recommended that you use TurboTax. Make sure you read that article to get your 20% off coupon! TurboTax has made my life much easier. My Mom has now used TurboTax successfully, and I had to explain to her how to go to turbotax.ca. Seriously. When I said ?go to turbotax.ca? she tried to do a web search for it instead of just typing in the URL. Then she was confused about which search result to click on (TurboTax was result #1). The best part? She did her search using Bing. Who in the world is unaware of Google? Answer: my Mom.

If you are a TurboTax holdout because you just can?t be?bothered to do some manual entry work, use a professional preparer. It?s costly, but it?s a lot cheaper than missing the deadline ? especially if you owe the government.

3) Create a tax folder.

Create a single file folder for each tax year at the beginning of each year. So, for the 2011 tax year, I started my tax folder in January 2011 as soon as I got my first receipt. Then, as you get deductible receipts throughout the year (medical, rent, charitable donations, moving expenses, etc.) stick them in this folder.

In 2012, as I received income slips for tax year 2011 ? whether they were?T3s, 4s, 5s, whatever ? I put them in this folder. After I submitted my 2011 taxes, I received my Notice of Assessment in the mail. I already had the perfect place to put it. No, not my garbage can. My 2012 tax folder. Now throughout the year, if I need to reference my 2012 RRSP limit, I?ve got just one place to look.

If you?ve already filed your taxes, good work. You?re probably much less lazy than I.

If not, don?t forget to start your 2012 folder TODAY. It takes like two minutes.

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