Tax season could be a two-word horror story for adults. It can be downright stressful and overwhelming. In fact, around 65% of Americans cite finances as a major source of stress. Add in strict deadlines and the fear of errors, and it’s no wonder anxiety levels soar.
Tax season could be a two-word horror story for adults. It can be downright stressful and overwhelming. In fact, around 65% of Americans cite finances as a major source of stress. Add in strict deadlines and the fear of errors, and it’s no wonder anxiety levels soar.
This guide shares simple yet effective tips for doing taxes without sacrificing your peace of mind. From getting organized ahead of time to giving yourself time to pause, you’ll learn strategies that will help your finances and mental well-being.
Why Tax Season Can Feel Overwhelming
Piles of receipts, cryptic tax codes, and a looming deadline are enough to make any adult’s heart pounding. Add the worry of forgetting one critical form or making a tiny misstep, and the pressure builds up fast.
Is it then so surprising that over half of Americans feel anxious about filing taxes? A 2021 survey says that 54% of Americans feel this way. Besides, everyday life responsibilities don't stop amid the tax season, so taxes just add more stress on top of stress.
Recognizing the Toll on Mental Health
Tax deadlines aren't Freddy Krueger, but they might as well be with how they creep into your thoughts, causing restlessness and dread.
In between endless calculations and strict paperwork requirements, you can easily feel drained out. This might surprise you, but even accountants get burnt out during tax season, proving how no one is immune to the pressure of doing taxes.
Conflating this issue are financial problems. Data from the American Psychological Association shows that 87% of Americans feel stressed about inflation and rising costs.
This creates a horrible two-point combo that's sure to throw any hard-working adult's mental health into disarray.
How to Do Taxes While Preserving Your Sanity
Tax season is not a jolly good time, but it doesn't have to be dreadful either. You can follow a few practices that can make a world of difference. Let's get into more detail below.
1. Start Early and Stay Organized
Procrastination is your enemy in any adult responsibility. And in doing taxes, procrastination is an even bigger villain. Yes, it can be tempting to put aside all the paperwork until the last minute, but this is the first step to a stressful tax season.
To avoid procrastinating with your taxes, start early and keep things organized. Gather all documents, including W-2s, 1099s, and receipts, well before the deadline. Doing this eliminates a good chunk of the task, saving you a lot of time when tax season comes.
When all paperwork is prepared before tax season begins, you reduce the risk of misplacing forms. This means you most likely won’t waste time looking for missing documents. As a bonus, you also reduce the risk of errors.
2. Set Up a Realistic Schedule
One surefire way to make the tax season even more taxing is trying to follow an unrealistic schedule. Are you sure you want to do all of your taxes in one sitting? Good luck with that.
A way better approach is to break the task down into smaller chunks. Spend 30 minutes today scanning receipts, another 30 minutes tomorrow double-checking numbers, and so on. A buffer day or two near the end also gives you room to handle surprises without raising your stress levels.
Setting up these bite-sized sessions helps prevent burnout, as you spend less time on taxes per day and have ample rest between parts. Additionally, dedicating separate sessions lets you give more attention to each step.
3. Use Technology to Your Advantage
Sure, if you feel more comfortable using pen and paper when doing taxes, keep doing so. However, have you considered that sticking to traditional means is perhaps a factor in why the tax season is so stressful for you?
If you've never harnessed the power of technology to make doing taxes easier, then it's not too late to try.
We now have access to tax software that streamlines calculations. There are budgeting apps that track deductible expenses and cloud storage that keep digital forms easy to access.
Moreover, automation tools can lower the chance of human error and give you more time to look at the bigger picture, like ensuring you claim every eligible deduction.
These are just three, but these tips for doing taxes can go a long way toward making tax season a less dreadful time in adult life.
Final Words
Having a solid game plan and following best practices during tax season is good and all, but you might be missing a critical factor: yourself. How are you doing? Are you feeling well going into the tax season?
Doing taxes is stressful, but it won't be any better if you dive into it with your well-being already in the dumps.
Amidst all the hustle, it's easy to forget how important self-care can be. Take time to recharge. You can practice deep breathing, sip a cup of your favorite tea, or head out for a quick walk. Any of these tasks can help you tackle taxes with a clearer head.
Remember, stress won't just disappear on its own. Fortunately, it doesn't take much to manage stress. A few minutes a day to pause and breathe makes you more resilient in the face of the tax season.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bash Sarmiento is a writer and an educator from Manila. He writes laconic pieces in the education, lifestyle and health realms. His academic background and extensive experience in teaching, textbook evaluation, business management and traveling are translated in his works
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