Taxes and Neat desk scanner

Not sure if this is the apropriate section to post this, Mo and Ryan, feel free to move it if necessary :-)

When are you guys usually filing your taxes ? Are you an early bird or you wait 'til the last minute ?
Also does anyone use neat desk scanner ? If possible I need your review on this :-)

I'm a late bird, as in 6 month extension lol.........because it decreases your chances of being audited.   

No Neat, but I've been meaning to get the The Fujitsu ScanSnap, but haven't yet.

Late to file as well. Down here the post office holds a little tax party where they hand out "slow poke" candies and do the whole costume and fireworks thing. It has become a habit, makes it less painful even though I will probably have my taxes ready to file by mid-Jan.

I like the idea of that scanner....would be interested in a review as well.

Davey Cracker wrote:I'm a late bird, as in 6 month extension lol.........because it decreases your chances of being audited.   

No Neat, but I've been meaning to get the The Fujitsu ScanSnap, but haven't yet.

Are you sure about that audit part Dave ?
I don't think that matters, what matters is the amount you made, if you made over $ 250,000, which you did your audit risk is a LOT higher no matter when you file

Does the fujitsu scan snap has software included ? Does it sync with tax softwares ?

I bought a Neat Scanner two years ago when getting audited by the state. Scanning a year's worth of invoices and receipts took the better part of a week. You do have to look at each scan before saving it to make sure that it captured the right information. If it didn't then you have to manually enter the info. I would say that it was probably 90% accurate with invoices, and maybe 70% with fuel receipts and store size receipts (Staples, Lowes, etc.). I was going to use it in 2013. In June I took a couple of days and entered the first half of the year. Somehow I forgot to save the work frequently enough and ended up losing about 3/4 of it   ... So I am doing everything for 2013 manually (unless I get audited again). My goal is to use it and keep up with it on a monthly basis in 2014.

All in all I recommend it. Just scan on a regular basis and save often   

carpetdaddy wrote:I bought a Neat Scanner two years ago when getting audited by the state. Scanning a year's worth of invoices and receipts took the better part of a week. You do have to look at each scan before saving it to make sure that it captured the right information. If it didn't then you have to manually enter the info. I would say that it was probably 90% accurate with invoices, and maybe 70% with fuel receipts and store size receipts (Staples, Lowes, etc.). I was going to use it in 2013. In June I took a couple of days and entered the first half of the year. Somehow I forgot to save the work frequently enough and ended up losing about 3/4 of it   ... So I am doing everything for 2013 manually (unless I get audited again). My goal is to use it and keep up with it on a monthly basis in 2014.

All in all I recommend it. Just scan on a regular basis and save often   

If I were to get it, I would definitely scan stuffs daily, I don't have the patience to sit for a few days scanning stuffs in :-)
Joe if you don't mind me asking, when you were audited, what are the things the IRS asked and also, did they require all paperworks in digital media ? Your statement sounded like you were getting Neat just for the audit purpose.
If the questions are too personal you don't have to answer :-)

As far as the taxes go. We pay qtr estimated. Hope that the State balances out the Fed return. I like to know ASAP. I want them paid and I want to start planning for the new business year.

As far as record keeping. We use QB and it has everything organized. Our accountant has access to the computer and monitors through out the year. Quick Books is fantastic.

Yea, I'd love to know some details of the Audit too!!...........don't be shy, give us all the juicy personal stuff!!     

It was a state audit not federal and I did get the Neat specifically for the audit. I don't use an accountant (I know I should...), I use Turbo Tax every year. And I always pay the extra $39 for the "Audit Defense". After the first letter from the state, I called the "Audit Defense" and they took care of all the correspondence. I sent them the information (receipts, invoices, bank statements, vehicle logs) digitally, they printed it and prepared a several hundred page paper package and had it delivered to the auditor. After that I never heard anything again from the state   

Good info, thanks Joe!!   

Yes, great info Joe, one reputation point for you sir :-)

And one + for you Dipi for the flood loss job.   

DP1, Thank you. Since you started this thread I have down loaded the latest version of the Neat Software. I have been entering my receipts for 2014 daily. I have also been entering personal documents and bills daily and then tossing the originals (personal stuff, not business stuff). My desk is 99% more organized and my head is a lot less cluttered (from worrying about all the piles of paper). My goal is this year is to touch each piece of incoming paper once - read it, scan it, file it elctronically, toss it in a box or trash, then fogettt abboouut it. The new software is excellent and even easier to navigate and organize then the old software and everything is saved automatically as soon as it is entered. My guess is that by setting aside 10-20 min. a day to keep up with this daily, tax prep time next year will go from the better part of a week to less than an hour, and the ability to find a filed document will be almost instantaneous   

so its a good thing to spend the $300+ bills on???

No problem Joe Gaito, I'm actually an accountant, that's why I'm somewhat organized and a little bit of a clutter freak, one of the thing I'm wondering is if uncle sam would accept digital version of paperwork instead of actual papers since they required the paperwork to be kept for 7 years.
Also I've been looking online and see some used neat desk scanner, some come with software cd, some don't, regardless of the cd is there or not, you can download the new software off of their site, right ?

Floorguy wrote:so its a good thing to spend the $300+ bills on???

This is for all your bills, I personally always remember the $ 300+ bills that I spent all year long, lol, the ones under $ 300 is the one that I have problem of forgetting, as well as paying Joe was the victim on my last invoice, lol, sorry Joe :-)

One other downside of this is you absolutely have to have a back up data just in case you got virus on your computer, I would do at least once every 2 weeks backing up data before I shred the papers, cause 2 weeks lost data / papers can mean $ 1000 - $ 2000 in bills can't be deducted from your gross income :-(

Well, I haven't done my taxes, been lagging and dragging my feet to start the damn process, I usually always finish what I started, just depends on my mood to get started, lol.
Have you guys done your taxes ?

Nope....hoping for death first.