Taxpayers gave a collective sigh of relief after the April tax deadline passed. Another year of scrambling to gather receipts and calculate expenses is over.
However, the tax season doesn’t have to be a mad dash to collect tax documents. Instead of waiting until next spring to get organized, start now. Mobile apps make it quick and easy to set up automated systems to capture the information you’ll need next year.
If you are going to use an app, though, be sure to use it consistently and completely throughout the year. An app is only useful if it has been updated regularly and contains complete information about finances.
If you’re ready to make next tax season the easiest one ever, here are 10 apps that can help you out.
— Mint.
— Simplifi by Quicken.
— Expensify.
— Bublup.
— FlyFin.
— Keeper Tax.
— MileIQ.
— Stride Mileage and Tax Tracker.
— Scannable.
— Calendar.
Mint
Mint is best known as a budgeting app that helps people track spending and measure progress toward financial goals. But in the process of doing that, it also ends up collecting data needed for tax time, such as spending on itemized deduction categories like medical expenses and charitable gifts.
Those reports can then be used to prepare your own taxes or provided to a CPA or tax preparer. Since Mint can be linked to multiple financial accounts, it can be a convenient way to compile a complete picture of your yearly spending.
The basic version of Mint is available for both Apple and Android devices, but Mint Premium is only offered for iOS right now.
Cost: Free for the basic ad-supported app, $4.99 a month for the ad-free Mint Premium.
[READ: Tax Prep Checklist: Collect These Forms Before Filing Your Taxes.]
Simplifi by Quicken
Like Mint, this app is designed to bring all aspects of your finances together in one place. Simplifi by Quicken can sync with multiple accounts — including banking, investments, credit cards and loans — to provide a comprehensive financial picture that is useful year-round.
“With fully customizable categories, users can create their own tax-related categories, tags, and reports to track all of their deductible expenses,” says Lee Decker, content manager at Quicken.
So long as users make a point to categorize and tag transactions throughout the year, it will be easy at tax time to calculate total spending amounts. This can be particularly useful for self-employed and gig workers who need to track expenses for a home office, travel or business supplies.
Cost:$3.99 per month.
Expensify
While Expensify is geared toward self-employed or small business users, it could be useful to anyone who wants to easily track expenses and mileage in the same place.
Personal and self-employed plans can be accessed for free and come with options to send and receive money, submit invoices and receipts to managers, and split bills with others. That’s in addition to mileage and expense tracking.
Data entered through the app may be accessed through an online Expensify account, and custom reporting is available to those with business accounts.
Cost:Free for up to 25 SmartScans per month, $5 to $9 monthly per user for business accounts with additional functionality.
Bublup
Cloud storage has revolutionized tax preparation by making it easy to find records of all kinds. While there are many cloud storage options, Bublup uses a visual approach that can be more appealing than having to search and scroll through file names or generic graphics.
The app is fully encrypted and can be used to collect and store documents including receipts, bills, emails, bank statements and more. When tax time rolls around, Bublup makes it easy to share folders and files with other people, such as your accountant.
“It eliminates that feeling of panic when looking for something you know you saved but can’t find,” says Alain Cohen, founder and CEO of Bublup.
Beyond financial documents, the app can be used to collect and organize a variety of other information, such as photos, recipes and bookmarks.
Cost:Free for up to 3 GB of storage, paid plans start at $6.99 per month or $66 per year for 100 GB of storage.
FlyFin
FlyFin pegs itself as the world’s first AI tax engine for freelancers. Designed for those who need to file a Schedule C tax form, it serves as both an expense tracker and a tax service.
Using read-only access to financial accounts, FlyFin’s AI recommends expenses as possible deductions. Users can accept or reject those suggestions using the service’s iOS app. If they aren’t sure whether something is deductible, it can be sent to a CPA for review.
At the end of the year, freelancers can send their data to a FlyFin CPA to have their taxes prepared or export information to be given to the tax preparer of their choice.
Cost:Basic plans start at $7 per month, plans that include tax filing cost more.
[Read: How to File Taxes.]
Keeper Tax
Another option for freelancers is Keeper Tax. This app scans bank and credit card accounts to look for potential deductions, and it will make tax bill predictions throughout the year so you won’t be surprised in the spring.
When it comes time to file taxes, everything can be done right in the app. With automatic tax form uploads and smart pre-filling, Keeper Tax says the process will “feel magical,” and tax filing takes users an average of only 22 minutes, according to the company. Returns are also reviewed and signed by a tax professional prior to being submitted to the IRS.
Cost: $16 per month.
MileIQ
Mileage deductions can equal hundreds of dollars for self-employed workers and business owners, but the IRS requires taxpayers to keep records of where they drove and when. You could keep a notebook in your car to record dates and destinations, or you could use MileIQ to automate the system.
When the app senses it’s traveling in a vehicle, it comes out of sleep mode to track the route, start and stop times and other data required by the IRS for a business mileage deduction. Users can then classify drives as personal or business trips and create reports to be used at tax time.
MileIQ is available for both individuals and teams, and boasts more than 1 million active users.
Cost: Free for up to 40 drives, $59.99 per year for unlimited drives and IRS reporting.
Stride Mileage and Tax Tracker
The Stride Mileage and Tax Tracker is another app for logging miles driven for a job, and it’s the one recommended by Scott Lieberman, founder of finance website Touchdown Money.
“It’s especially useful for gig workers and self-employed folks who put miles on their own vehicle for work,” he says.
Offered by Stride, a health insurance platform for independent workers, the app will automatically track mileage using GPS and can be used to track other expenses as well. Then, at tax time, it can be used to create IRS-ready summaries for claiming deductions.
Cost: Free.
Scannable
If you already use Evernote, the service’s Scannable app might be a logical choice for you to scan and organize your receipts as well as other documentation. Available only for Apple devices, Scannable lets you tag tax-related items to find them easily in April.
Up to 60 MB of storage is provided free to basic Evernote users. Those looking for more storage or features can upgrade to a plus or premium account for an additional fee.
Cost: Free for basic account, $14.99 and $17.99 per month for upgraded accounts.
Calendar
Having receipts is vital to filling out tax forms, but the IRS will want to see more than that in the event you are audited.
IRS auditors may look for calendar entries to help justify expenses, particularly those related to travel. While a paper calendar will work, an electronic calendar may be easier to use and share. Google, Apple and Outlook calendar apps are popular choices, but any calendar that comes with a mobile device should work too.
Cost:Free if using a device’s pre-installed calendar program.
More from U.S. News
9 Red Flags That Could Trigger a Tax Audit
Important Dates to Mark on Your Personal Finance Calendar
10 Apps to Use Now to Make Taxes Easier Next Year originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 05/16/23: This story was published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
