Mail's Here!

It's the time of year where nearly every day's mail includes important tax documents.  We have received statements from a couple of the charities that we supported during 2012.  We have received one W2 and are awaiting another. 

Here's how I keep track.  I have a plastic folder that ties shut.  I keep it by the phone, standing on end near the phone book and two other such envelopes.  Each day when I find something that may be relevant to our 2012 taxes, I slip it into the envelope.  When in doubt as to whether we will need it to do our taxes or not, I put it in the envelope just to be on the safe side.

The other plastic envelopes near the phone we use all the time.  One is green.  We collect in it important tax stuff that we get during the year.  Things like receipts for the bags of clothes I dropped off at the Goodwill and the receipt for our real estate tax payments.  I keep our last pay stubs of the year in there and compare them to the W2s as they come in. 

The other plastic folder is red.  It collects every credit card receipt from purchases.  Bob is in the habit of charging our groceries and gasoline for our cars.  Each receipt goes into the red folder.  It helps when I reconcile the Visa statement each month.

Why green and red?  Red implies red ink or negative $.  It holds our expenses that are placed on our Visa card.  Green implies $.  Most of what lands in this envelope is for deductible expenses like gifting and real estate taxes. 

I keep it simple so we don't have to remember and I don't have to label the envelopes.

Also to note:  The color scheme in our kitchen and family room is deep red and lighter green.

til later