Time Savers

Scrambling to file your taxes on time? Avoid missteps in these three areas to save time.

Data entry. If you’ve waited until the last minute to get organized, there’s a good chance you’ll enter things incorrectly when you’re trying to determine your net income. By pacing yourself and entering everything properly, you’ll save time in the end.

Categorizing expenses. If you categorize your expenses incorrectly, you risk having to reexamine all of the year’s transactions. “One thing a lot of people don’t realize is that you need to break up your expenses rather than lumping everything into the business expense category,” Huntington says. “For example, categorize things like entertainment, utilities and home office expenses separately.”

Get outside help. One of the biggest mistakes people make is not being knowledgeable about the filing process, Huntington says. “All you have to do is clean up your paperwork and hand it over to a bookkeeper or CPA, and they’ll make sure everything is done right and on time,” she adds.