The way to make tax time less painful starts with one core idea:

Gathering data after the fact is harder and more painful that doing it a little at a time.

Start NOW. We know what information you will need for tax time:

• Total income (what you billed clients/customers)
• Total expenses (all the costs you incurred, plus deductions)

If you wait until everyone sends you forms (like a 1099) to figure things out you have to rebuild a year’s worth of activity in just a couple weeks. You didn’t have the chance to plan for your taxes and get an opportunity to maximize deductions.

That is the real secret.

Taxes are a year around adventure for freelancers.

There is just no other way to say it. Being a freelancer is, I think, the best thing in the world. But it isn’t all rainbows and Aero Press coffee. But this can all be automated for the most part. If you haven’t done it yet you have to separate the activity. Yes, I am broken record but it is seriously the most key, core, critical, (and other adjectives) part of making life less painful.

Once that is done, all you have to do is plug those accounts into one of our favorite tools:

• Xero
• Quickbooks Online

So, short version if you haven’t done it yet you NEED to get this set up. Literally ALL other strategies, ideas and plans fall out of this.