Get all your ducks in a row. I’m sure we all know the meaning of this statement – to organize your tasks, time and tools to be prepared to take action on the next step. There are theories as to the origin of this statement that goes back a long way.
This is especially pertinent at this time of year, tax time. In order to prepare your annual income tax returns, you need to get all your ducks in a row, or to gather all the documents required to complete this task. It’s a term that means to prepare for what lies ahead.
Getting a system setup to keep all incoming documentation together is probably the first step to get all your ducks in a row. That provides the prep work in order to work on your tax return or hire it out if you don’t have the required skillset.
It can be something as simple as a folder labeled ‘tax documents’. When you receive a tax document in the mail or one becomes available online, it goes right into the tax documents folder. This folder can be paper or digital, or both. If you’re not particularly tech savvy, paper documents work just fine.
Waiting for all the required documents to arrive can be frustrating. You can’t get on to the task at hand without the required documents, you can’t get all your ducks in a row! Businesses that are required to send out these documents have their schedules to get them to you in the required IRS timeframe to be legally compliant. Understanding these schedules may help ease your anxiety.
When you get all your ducks in a row, then you are prepared to get your annual tax returns filed. This concept not only works for getting your taxes filled out and submitted to the IRS. It works for any type of task or project, personally or professionally that you need to get done.
