Back in September 2012 we had a post titled Are You Preparing For Next Year’s Taxes. In that post we gave some general ideas of things you should have started preparing early to give to your accountants, or to have if you’re doing your own taxes, for the next year. Since it’s hard to get people moving that far in advance we decided to do it in December this year. So while you’re thinking about Christmas or other holiday gifts, keep these things in the back of your mind:

1. Mileage. We had mileage in our previous post but we’re taking it a bit further. Our hope is that you at least kept a calendar of all your business events and travel for the year, even if it was just meetings or business luncheons. Maybe you kept receipts from the post office or Fed Ex; if you had to drive to those places that counts as business mileage. Educational seminar; you can use the mileage for that as well. If you’ve kept up with it all on a monthly basis this will be a snap; if not, well, it’ll take some time, but it’ll be worth it.

2. Receipts. Do you keep all your business receipts in one place? Are they in order? They don’t necessarily have to be for some accountants but if you can help out they’ll appreciate it. If you work in a home office do you have expenses that your business takes a chunk out of such as internet access, utility bill, cellphone bills or things like that? Hey, every little bit of expense helps.

3. Amount of pre-paid taxes. Whether you’ve paid a lot or a little, it all helps your accountant figure out just what you owe. You might have to indicate it on a bank or credit card statement but hopefully you’ve kept track of it in some fashion.

4. Advertising and other business expenses. Sometimes people don’t think about this as a business expense if all that was done was printing some letters and mailing them out but if you spent money doing it, it counts. If you have a website how much as you paying for hosting and for your domain name? If you paid someone to write for you that’s another expense you get to claim.

Just a few things to help get your mind thinking about expenses to help you pay less on your taxes in the coming year; good luck.