It’s January, and that means that the holiday parties are over, and it’s time to do two important things: one, go on a diet; and two, get ready for taxes! If you are a high income individual living in San Francisco, then you are an ideal candidate to work with Safe Harbor. Here are some tips to get ready for tax season:
First, gather up all your important documents. This might be W-2 income statements from your San Francisco Bay Area employer, it might be interest paid on a home mortgage in San Francisco, it might be stocks or stock options that were exercised during the year, it might be active or passive income from a business. But in order to do your taxes, of course, your San Francisco tax service will need to have your documents!
Second, think about bookkeeping. It might be a simple spreadsheet kept in Excel, or it might be a more complex QuickBooks or Quicken financial software package. In either case, you may want to provide your tax service with electronic records about your personal and/or business finances.
Third, it’s time to think about your tax service. Were you happy with last year’s performance? Did they promptly answer your telephone calls? Were they friendly? Do you think that they provided you a good service? If so, then obviously use the same tax service. If not, it might be time to get a second opinion. Of course, we are happy to provide a second opinion!
Those are just a few tax tips for getting ready for taxes.
Think about the Long-Term when it Comes to Taxes
But, we recommend a long-term approach. Rather than think about taxes in “panic mode” at the end of the year, we advise that you work with your tax service or certified public accountant throughout the year, so that you not only accumulate the necessary records, but you also have tax strategies in place to minimize your taxes.
For us at safe harbor, tax season is not just January or February, but it is something we do all year round with our high income San Francisco clients, so that when January comes all they really need to think about is going on a diet.
