It may seem strange to start thinking about next year’s taxes already, but the better prepared you are, the more money, time, and stress you can save when tax season rolls around. Here are a few items that you can start working on now.

Get organized
Waiting until the last minute to get everything together and organized causes stress and can cost you by not having everything you need to file. If you haven’t already, start a folder with all of your tax related items. If you have multiple people filing in your household, designate a place where everyone can put their documents.

Start inputting
If you’ve fallen behind putting your information in your tax software for the year, now would be a great time to catch up rather than up against a deadline in April. Plus, this will also help give you a good idea of where you’ll be at the end of the year and if any adjustments need to be made prior to tax season.

Search for a professional
If you will need a tax professional, it would be a good idea to start the search now to make sure you get the right person for the job. There are great resources for selecting a tax professional at www.irs.gov.

Brush up on changes
If you will be doing your taxes yourself, start researching changes for this year’s tax filings now. You don’t want to be reading all the changes in April and trying to comply at the last minute. You can find out about tax law changes by visiting www.irs.org.

Adjust withholdings
If you owed money last year, you may want to take a look at your tax withholdings and decrease the number of personal allowances on the W-4 form. There’s still time to make adjustments to your withholdings that will hopefully result in less money owed at tax time (or even a refund).

The above is not intended to be tax advice, was not written by a tax professional and is informational only. Please consult a tax advisor for your specific situation.