Even though now is the time you are probably getting everything ready to file your 2006 taxes, now is also the time to be doing the planning for 2007.  Here are some ideas to consider when making your plan for this tax year:

1.  Start a filing system for keeping all your receipts and other tax related documents.  This doesn’t have to be fancy, but it does need to be organized.  Use file labels to separate documents which keeps them easier to find when you are actually preparing your taxes.  What do you need to keep?  Charitable donation receipts, property tax receipts, stock purchases and sales documents, home equity loan information, paperwork from the purchase or sale of a home, and medical receipts to name a few. 

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We keep our tax information in one file for the current tax year so it is easy to find all the information we will need to do our taxes.  We start by getting the file in order of how our taxes will be done using Turbo Tax Deluxe Software.  Once the file is in order, we try to find the best price for Turbo Tax.  There are a couple of other tax software programs for doing your taxes but we like Turbo Tax the best.  Most of the places we have seen Turbo Tax Deluxe for sale has it priced around $44, but Sams Club has it priced at $30.  If we do not see it priced anywhere else better by the end of January we will purchase it there.  We could do our taxes using Turbo Tax Web based program for half the price on Vanguard.com or for free on the State Farm web site (you need to have a State Farm account online).   However, we would have to have it saved to their site which we do not want to do.  We like having control over something as important and confidential as our tax report.