Tax Tip for Home Child Care Providers

Tax time can be stressful for home daycare providers, because there is so much information to gather. I will be publishing one tax tip each week through April 15, to try to make this process as painless as possible. Also, look for my new article, "Important Tax Deductions for Home Daycare and Child Care Providers" to be published in the next couple of days on EZineArticles.com. It contains a detailed look at two important tax deductions that you definitely need to claim as a child care provider.
My tax tip for this week is to organize your receipts by month. Before I became a child care provider I didn't save my receipts unless I had paid by credit card or there was a possibility that I might need to return something. I certainly never saved my grocery receipts. But I received good advice from another provider when I got started - NEVER throw away a store receipt! I began by just stuffing all of my receipts into a large envelope and never looked at them again until tax time. While this works, it makes tax time very time consuming! I recommend creating an envelope for each month. As you get receipts just put them in the correct envelope. Then, at the end of each month, take 30 minutes and tally the receipts for that month.
Write the totals on the front of each envelope. (For category suggestions and how to tally receipts, see the above mentioned article.) If you keep up with this process tax time will be a breeze! If you want to be even more organized with your receipts, check out this cool daycare management software! Click Here! Remember to check back here weekly for more tax tips for daycare providers!