Tax Woes: What Documents to Keep for Next Year to Get Your Biggest Refund Yet

By Colby McAdams on January 17, 2017

With all the joy that refund season brings me also comes stress and regrets during filing when I realize that the money doesn’t magically appear in my account when the calendar turns to February. Even though it is my money, I still have to prove it through a paper trail spanning the past year. This is pretty daunting, considering it is hard for me to remember to even pay this month’s electricity bill. (I owe my credit score to auto-payments.)

It happens every January — the TurboTax form asks if I’ve donated to charity this year, and I vaguely recall sponsoring a peer for the Miracle Walk last April. But I can’t remember the amount or the possible deductible, or even where I saved the receipt. So I cut my losses, skip to the next step, and forget about that $25 deductible.

The only way to prevent losing out on my money is to plan. This past January, after realizing all the money I was bamboozling myself out of through my laziness, I decided to take action. I bought an accordion organizer from Ocean State Job Lot to keep all of my important financial tax documents and I stowed it in my desk. This filing season I sat down with the folder and was able to thumb through stress-free, and I got my biggest refund yet.

Here are the most important documents that I am glad I kept track of.

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1. Charitable donation deductible receipts: I was surprised by how generous I was this year. I was also surprised by how many of my friends asked for money. Plenty of organizations offer deductibles for charitable donations. Every time I made an online contribution to a friend’s Relay for Life or Miracle Walk account I made sure to print the receipt from my email and add it to my file. This is important, as a donor cannot receive a deduction unless they have written proof of donating, so keep those receipts!

 2. Accounts I pay interest on — student loans: It hurts to look at, and sometimes I avoid taking a peek in how much interest I’ve paid on my undergraduate student loan balances. But reporting those numbers can actually increase your refund. There is a form called 1098-E, and if you’ve paid more than $600 in interest your financial institution will send it to you. Don’t worry if you don’t have a copy of the form. TurboTax lets you manually input the amount of interest you paid. The only catch is that you need to be able to find this amount. Make sure you’ve kept all the paperwork surrounding your loans so you can log into your account and get that number fast.

3. Miscellaneous income records: We all have different ways of getting our money. If you’re lucky maybe you hit it big on the slot machine or at the blackjack table. You’re still required to report this supplemental income amount so make sure you keep track of your winnings. Save all your cash out tickets and at the end of the year, you can look back fondly on all of your gambled earnings. This goes for more than just gambling. If you received any scholarships to help fund your education you’ll need that amount too.

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