Beat the tax office to it and start now!
Tue 09 March 2010
, Marie-Pauline Luger, Vrouw & Geldzaken
As April approaches, the Netherlands is flooded with blue envelopes. ‘But why do we always wait on the tax office to get our finances in place?,’ our money coach Marie-Pauline Luger from Vrouw & Geldzaken asks. She has four last minute tips.
April is knocking at the door and in Holland this means everyone is preparing and filing her taxes. From my experience, generally 1 out of every 4 women makes a financial New Year resolution. This varies from getting their finances in order, cutting back on expenses, rearranging their insurances, to finally sorting out their investment portfolio, or filling the tax form in time this year. Despite the promising list, very few actually follow through, because work and family commitments take up all their time. And before they notice, April’s hit hard.
Last minute tips
One way to avoid this problem is setting up a system with which you’ll be prepared for filling the tax form. But it is rather late to start with this right now. So here are some last minute pointers to get started with the tax form, to avoid stress in the coming weeks.
- Use last year’s form as a starting point so you overlook miss any bank accounts.
- Update your list of bank accounts, and don’t forget your digital ones and your children’s accounts.
- Collect the important papers in time, such as house owner overviews, mortgage outlines, company shares etc.
- If you are sure you won’t manage to file your tax in time, request for postponement now.
Start now
After you filed the form take a good look at how you performed this year. In order to be better prepared or to perform better next year, get your finances in place starting from now. The incentives for taking care of your personal finances may not be as clear and straightforward as in the office. But the rewards far outweigh the trouble.
If you want to know how, go to our website for our practical filing system or workshop with experts.
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