Are you a "shoe box filer"? That's a person who puts all their important receipts and papers into shoe boxes and plans to organize them someday. But someday never comes, and when it's time to file your taxes, you have this chaotic mess of papers to go through, which takes hours or even days of your valuable time. Not to mention, the stress of getting it all gathered properly and recorded.
Even if you decide to use shoe boxes for your filing system, you might want to at least organize them by month. I'd suggest no more than two shoe boxes. Why? That's as long as you should go without handling the papers properly and really filing them according to what they represent. Then, at the end of the year, you just have one final sort to do and you're ready to visit your tax preparer or file your own taxes.
For myself, I use manilla envelopes to keep control of my monthly receipts. I only keep the receipts that will have an impact on my taxes. Other receipts, such as personal purchases, regular monthly bills receipts, or household purchases receipts not related to business, are kept only for the length of time necessary to be sure I don't have to pay them again or I can take an item back if it fails to meet my expectations. After that, they are tossed.
Consult your tax preparer or the IRS to determine which receipts will benefit you in your business tax filing.
