Paper Doll
Understanding Evernote: What, Why, and How
Don’t you hate falling behind the curve? You may hear a term (like net neutrality, or twerking, or whatever) once or twice and dismiss it, but then it seems like you wake up one day and everyone knows the intricate details of a subject except for you. Technology is the worst, because you get the sense that everyone knows the secret password for a new productivity clubhouse and you’re left out in the cold.
Nobody likes feeling left out, so I’d like to share the basics of Evernote, my favorite online notebook system. I’m by no means an expert, or even an ambassador. But I am a user, and it has helped me be more organized for my blogging, writing and presentations. So, if you’re feeling fuzzy on “What’s the what-what?” re: Evernote, or if you can “sort of” use it but don’t know how to explain it to someone else, this might be a good place to start.
Evernote: The Basics
Evernote is a suite of digital products designed to help you collect, curate, find and keep track of all the information for your life and business.
The main Evernote app, Trunk (because an elephant never forgets), is designed for creating and “clipping” notes, just like you’d clip articles from the newspaper. Related notes can be grouped into notebooks. (Trunk is only one of many Evernote products designed to organize and master your information. For example, Evernote Hello is for contacts and integrates with Facebook and LinkedIn. Skitch lets you draw on photos and annotate notes. Penultimate is a handwriting app that enables you to devise mind maps, sketch, and create searchable written items.)
Evernote is free for up to 100,000 notes, 250 synchronized notebooks, 10,000 tags and 100 saved searches, and you can upload up to 60 MB of data per month at no charge. For $3.99/month or $34.99/year, a Plus account allows 1 GB of uploads per month; a Premium subscription for $7.99/month or $69.99 annually gives you 10GB/month in uploads. The paid versions provide offline access, an extra mobile security key, and searchable PDFs. Evernote Business is $14.99/user/month and has a wide variety of offerings for extensive collaboration and complex archiving. [Editor’s note: pricing and features change periodically; check Evernote’s Getting Started page for a full rundown of features and pricing.]
So What Constitutes a Note?
A note can be:
- clipped from an external source, like an entire web page or just an excerpt (like a sidebar or a caption), a photo or other captured image.
- formatted text that you create from inside the app. (Notes can have attachments appended to them, too.)
- recorded using your device’s built-in microphone and transcribed into text.
Evernote is available for: Windows, Mac, IOS (iPhone, iPad, etc.), Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry and Web OS. Everything you create can be synced and backed-up across all of your devices and in the cloud. Type it here, see it there.
Maybe you’re thinking, “But I already have bookmarks or favorites in my browser. And I already have Word or Google Drive. Why would I want Evernote?” It’s because Evernote is greater than the sum of its parts.
What Evernote Works Like
Bookmarks, but with superpowers: you can tag (label) notes, group them into notebooks, embed notes you’ve clipped into other notes you create and search by tags. The “clipper” is available for specific web browsers; if you don’t specify what you want clipped, it will clip the entire page. It also clips the URL, but with Evernote, even if the web page subsequently gets changed or deleted, you have a permanent record of what was there.
Notetaking software: You can type directly into a new or existing note as if it were a Word document, format it with bullets, bolding, italics, justification, etc. and then add photos, videos or whatever. Then, when it’s fully baked, turn your document into a blog post, a contract, a poster/flyer, client instructions, etc.
An extra, super-organized brain: Record voice memos. Take pictures with your phone or tablet and then edit or annotate them with other elements of the Evernote suite, like Skitch. Add geolocation tags to notes so you know where you were when you created them (so later, even if you don’t remember any tags, you can find everything you created while on vacation or at a conference). Send an email (or Tweet from Twitter) directly to your Evernote account. Imagine working on a project — instead of having a handful of status emails in your inbox, a dozen tweets, multiple drafts on your computer and in the cloud, and a final version on your desktop, Evernote keeps everything in one place.
Google Drive or similar collaborative space. You can collaborate with others to create and update documents jointly.
So, instead of having everything you need in dark little pockets of your universe, Evernote brings them all together.
Get Started with Evernote
1) Create an account. This link will give you a free month at the Premium level, but the free account should suffice for most beginners. I suggest starting out on your computer, then moving to your mobile device. It’s easier to get the big picture on a big screen.
2) Download the software appropriate for your computer, and then download the app for your flavor of phone, tablet, etc.
3) Install the Evernote “clipper” in your computer’s browser – a bookmarklet that goes in your browser’s bookmark bar. When you’re on a page that you want to clip, click the elephant icon in your browser bar. (The log-in screen will pop up the first time.) If you only want to clip a portion of a page, highlight it. Evernote will save the page or portion, save the URL, let you add tags or comments, and prompt you to save the new note to your default folder or any specific folder you prefer.
4) Install a paid clipper icon on your phone or tablet, like EverClip. Or, you can install a free clipper in your mobile browser using these instructions to install a free clipper in your Safari bookmark bar (for IOS products).
For some reason, Evernote hasn’t yet created its own free mobile web clipper tool. However, if you’re willing to use the Dolphin Browser instead of on your iPad, iPhone or Android phone, you can try Dolphin’s free built-in web clipper.
[Editor’s Note, 1/25/2015: Android and iOS8+ device users can now share directly from their browsers to their Evernote accounts following the instructions on the Evernote blog, at How to Clip Web Content Into Evernote Using Android and iOS Devices.]
5) Start clipping and/or creating notes. Organize them. Retrieve them.
- Create a note as a clipping by using the web clipper.
- Create a note as text. Click “new note” (or the + sign, when mobile). Start typing, then format, add check boxes to make a checklist, insert whatever you want, and go wild.
- Create a note by snapping a photo. (We’ll cover more on this in an upcoming post on the cool relationship between Evernote and Post-it.)
- Create an audio note by clicking the microphone icon. Talk. (Lifehack‘s Steve Dotto explained the audio functions well in his recent My Five Favorite Evernote Features video.)
- Email a note to your personalized Evernote email address. (To find yours, log into your account and find your Account Info page. Evernote will show you “Email notes to:” and your default Evernote address. To send to a specific notebook, type an @ sign in front of the notebook’s name, like @BlogNotes. Add tags to emailed notes by typing a hashtag (#) in front of a tag you’ve previously created, like #paperorganizing in the email’s subject line. To do both, the subject line would be @BlogNotes #paperorganizing.
- Tweet a note to @myEN from the Twitter account associated with your Evernote account. (You do have to follow @myEN for it to work.)
- Drag and drop documents (to create notes) from your desktop to specific notebooks (in Safari, Chrome and various other browsers).
- Share a note or a notebook. Hover over the notebook and click on the down-arrow to see your sharing options.
- Geotag your notes. Click on the Atlas, and Evernote will show you what notes you’ve taken where. (Didn’t do a great job of labeling the receipt photos you snapped on your business trip to Duluth? Evernote will find them for you geographimagically!)
- Create shortcuts so notes you use all the time are easily and quickly accessible.
Evernote has a wide variety of other features. You can post links to notes in Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, turn your Evernote window into a full-screen presentation display (in the Premium version) mark up entire notes as PDFs and even create timed reminders related to your notes so you can maintain your productivity.
Now that you know the what, why and how, give Evernote a whirl, and be sure to check out the Evernote blog and Getting Started videos for a more thorough education. Welcome to the clubhouse!
My “Delegate Like A Boss” Interview: Encore on Monday, 2/3/14
Paper Doll readers, are you still feeling overwhelmed?
A few weeks ago, I told you about the Delegate Like a Boss video summit in which I was participating.
At the time, I said:
Are you trying to do it all? (You know you are.) And are you completely overwhelmed by the idea that everything you’re asked to do, everything you’re supposed to do, and everything you want to do can’t quite fit into those measly 24 hours assigned to you? (Take note: we’ve all got the same 24 hours, so if it seems like someone else is rocking getting it all done, consider that maybe they’re not doing it all themselves!)
(Read the original post to learn more.)
It was so much fun working with Susan Brennan of Consider It Done Personally to be part of her Delegate Like a Boss video summit. So I was REALLY excited when Susan informed me that my interview was a top-three favorite and will have an encore this Monday, February 3, 2014. So, if you missed it the first time around (or didn’t realize it was free, fun and fabulous), here’s your second chance. Just sign up at the Delegate Like a Boss link and you’ll be able to watch the encore.
See you there!
House of Doolittle: Doing Much for the Environment & Time Management (A Shoplet Review)
Periodically Paper Doll reviews new and established office supplies and accessories through the Shoplet Product Review Program. This week, we’ll be looking at two products from the House of Doolittle.
I must admit, although I’ve written about recycled products many times before, I was unfamiliar with House of Doolittle, a 95-year-old office supply company that makes 100% post-consumer paper products, including desk pads, appointment planners, wall calendars, laminated planners, non-dated planning supplies, and USA and international maps.
In 1988, House of Doolittle made the commitment to produce all of their products from recycled paper and materials, eventually converting to recycled cover materials and book wire, soy inks, and Processed Chlorine Free (PCF) and FSC-certified paper. All House of Doolittle products are manufactured in the United States.
The House of Doolittle Weekly Expense Log Business Planner harkens back to a pre-app era when most professionals kept track of time and tasks using paper planners. Paper Doll, with one foot in the paper realm and the other in cyberspace, still maintains a paper planner, and can see the appeal of having a small, tangible planner where one can quickly schedule appointments, check information and log expenses without need for Wi-Fi or charged batteries.
The Basics: This 7″ x 10″ wire-bound planner uses the two-page-per week style, with Monday through Thursday blocks on the left-side page with lines for 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. standard workday appointments. The right-side page offers the same for Friday through Sunday, as well as a chart for keeping expense records for the week, with columns for Sunday through Saturday and rows for standard travel expenses (like meals, hotel, tips and parking) and typical weekly expenses (like postage, phone, entertainment, auto, gas and miscellaneous). The right-side page also has three small insets at the top, showing monthly calendars for the prior, current and next months.
The black leatherette cover is made of 50% recycled materials; the twin-loop wire binding is made from 90% recycled wire.
The Business Planner doesn’t skimp on extras. Trying hard not to be outdone by the whole of the internet, bonus pages include three-year holiday listings, area codes, time zones, toll-free numbers for airlines, car rental companies and hotels, air and driving mileage distances between major cities, weights and measures, metric conversions, recycling information, monthly birthstones/flowers and an annual anniversary gift list. (Whew!)
The Review: This type of planner is ideal for someone who needs to mark appointments and expenses but has relatively few notes to make regarding either. The space for each day is ample for charting the bare essentials (the who/where/why) of appointments, but with only two small rows for each hour, meeting notes are meant to be taken elsewhere.
Thus, it’s well-designed for what it’s meant to do, but professionals needing more robust planning pages would do well to upgrade from the weekly planner to a daily planner; those wanting House of Doolittle’s environmental commitment but seeking to schedule appointments more frequently than hourly might want to examine their Professional Hardcover Weekly Planner, with time frames on the quarter hour.
As a professional organizer, my biggest concern with the planner was the expense record section. Although the two-page spread for the calendar goes from Monday to Sunday, the expense section runs from Sunday to Saturday. Should the Sunday in the expense planner refer to the expenses from the prior page? Why don’t the days line up? It’s a small issue, and as long as the user sticks to the same recording method all the time, it’s not problematic, but it does seem confusing. Also, as with most paper expense planners, there’s only one slot per expense category per day, so you have to do your math first before recording anything, which may not be preferable.
The Business Planner runs about $17 at Shoplet for an individual planner, and is under $10 if you purchase in bulk.
The House of Doolittle 2014 Calendar is what Paper Doll used to call a desk blotter in ye olden days, and lets you view the whole month at one glance.
The Basics: The 18.5″ x 13″ January to December calendar, designed to be posted on a wall or used as a desk blotter, has a dark blue leatherette top-band and bottom corners to hold the pages in place. Each perforated page identifies the month, has squares for each weekday (Sunday through Saturday) with count-up/count down numbers (so you know you’ve got only 337 more days until 2015!) and twelve tiny monthly calendars at the bottom. There’s a wide section at the far right for jotting down notes, phone numbers and other incidentals.
The 2014 Calendar is made from 100% post-consumer paper and soy inks, and is made entirely in the USA.
The Review: When Paper Doll worked in television programming, having a desk pad calendar was indispensable for viewing the month at one shot and noting important events without having to look up from the desk. I’d forgotten how useful that was until I examined the House of Doolittle 2014 Calendar.
I think this calendar, which is smaller than the typical desk blotter by a handful of inches, would be perfect for kitchen desks, which tend to be cramped, and for students/bedroom desks, to maintain an eagle-eye view of when assignments and tests are scheduled. The only flaw I note is that the smaller pad size means that the squares for each day are reduced, and perhaps a bit cramped for those of us with sprawling handwriting. Nonetheless, it’s a spiffy little calendar for under $9 (under $6 if you buy in bulk).
Both the House of Doolittle Business Planner and 2014 Calendar, and many others HoD products, are available directly from Shoplet, which also maintains a colorful and often goofy blog about office supplies. Shoplet is also an excellent source for business promotional products, including promotional shirts. In addition to selling office supplies in North America, Shoplet is a purveyor of office stationery in the UK.
Disclosure: I received these products for review purposes only, and was given no monetary compensation. The opinions, as always, are my own. (Who else would claim them?) The planner and calendar will be donated to a Chattanooga-area non-profit.
Taxing Conversations (Part 3): Form-Free Organizing
For most people, anticipating tax time falls on a continuum from vague annoyance to full-blown anxiety. Getting organized isn’t a panacea against all that causes us stress, but it can inoculate us against the worst of it. (As Paper Doll always says, organizing can’t prevent catastrophes, but it can help make them less catastrophic.)
In our last two posts, we’ve looked at the basics for getting started organizing for tax time (including making use of the IRS’s new Get Transcript service), and we’ve tried to make some sense out of W-2s and the myriad 1099s and 1098s that organizations and institutions are obligated to provide you.
But what about other documents, the kinds that don’t come on forms? Most will be proof of deductible financial transactions. While some may be provided directly to you at the time (like receipts for deductible expenses), others may be sent as part of correspondence. And, of course, other types of proof will require you do some hunting and gathering.
There are a few main categories to consider.
YOUR HEALTH
You could (and probably should) maintain a folder with the receipts and annotated (paid) statements for all of your family’s out-of-pocket doctor’s visits and other medical care. At the end of the year, flipping through this folder allows you to summarize your medical expenses and determine if you’ve met the IRS threshold for deducting them. If you use a financial dashboard like Mint and are faithful about making sure expenses are assigned to the right categories, you may not have to do any math at all.
For reference, effective this year, you may only deduct medical expenses that exceed 10% of your adjusted gross income. (If you are 65 or older, the old 7.5% applies until 2017.)
If you have health insurance coverage, your company probably creates an annual summary indicating how much health care you’ve used and the amount you paid/owed to medical providers during the course of the year. For example, Blue Cross Blue Shield calls theirs a personal health statement.
The trick is that most people have no idea that their insurance companies create these summaries, as they tend not to be mailed to policy holders. Insurers save mailing costs and hope you’ll know to log into your online account to search for your summary. (If your medical expenses for the prior year are too low to qualify to be deductible, just save a PDF of your summary for your records; don’t bother printing.)
If your insurance company doesn’t create annual summaries, you can usually use the “You Owe” column of the Explanation of Benefits (EOB) that your insurer sends after doctor’s visits, hospitalizations and procedures (and you should definitely be able to log in or call to request copies of these, if you’ve discarded them). If your medical expenses are low, no further effort is needed, but if it looks like you’ll be able to take deductions, using your annual summary or EOBs will give you a handle on which receipts or dated statements you’re seeking for tax support.
In the future, try to be vigilant about saving medical expense receipts, as your EOBs and insurance company summaries are not considered proof of what you spent on deductible medical expenses, only indications of what you owed to medical providers. Collect receipts for:
Medical care expenses: Be sure to only count expenses for which you paid and not portions paid by the insurance company or “network savings.” (That’s the amount knocked off the bill simply because you have insurance. If you were uninsured, you’d be charged more than the total paid by you and the insurance company!)
Pharmaceutical expenses: Call or visit your pharmacy to request a printout of all pharmaceutical purchases you made for yourself and your children during the prior tax year. (Because of privacy laws, your spouse may have to make a separate request.) Using only one pharmacy for prescriptions is advantageous.
Health Savings Account documentation: For every qualified medical expense you pay through your health savings account (HSA) or medical savings account (MSA), keep a record of the name and address of each person or company you paid and the amount and date of the payment. Since HSAs can be used to cover everything from orthodontia and acupuncture to durable medical equipment and contact lens solution, be sure to save your receipts, and if a receipt doesn’t clearly describe what you actually purchased, make a note at the top to ease your efforts at tax time.
Medically-necessary travel expenses: If you (or a family member) have conditions that require travel for treatment, you can deduct the travel costs. Keep a paper or digital log of the miles driven and use the current IRS standard mileage rate for medical purposes for 2013 (or 2014).
YOUR HOME
Home purchases: Maintain records regarding the purchase (or sales) documentation for a house, as well as records for closing costs, home inspections, fees paid to real estate agents and any records regarding private mortgage insurance.
Casualty and theft losses require documentation. For thefts, you’ll need to have proof of ownership (that’s why we recommend saving “big ticket” item receipts and videoing a household inventory), proof of theft (usually via a police report) and the date that the item was stolen (to proove it falls in the appropriate tax year).
For proof of loss due to casualty, maintain insurance company confirmation letters regarding the date and cause (ice storm, lightning, fire, auto accident, etc.) of a loss, estimates of original costs and costs of repair/replacement vs. what your insurance company will or will not pay (or has paid), and proof of ownership.
Moving expenses relate to actual costs (movers, truck rental, storage, etc.) and mileage. Did you move more than 50 miles in order to work at a new job/location? Check out IRS Publication 521 regarding what you’ll have to document.
Other home-related paperwork to save include:
- Receipts and records regarding any home improvement efforts you’ve made which materially increase the value of your home (which will have a tax implication when you sell).
- Records of purchases for your primary residence that qualify you for the Energy Star tax credits for the applicable year. This gives you credit for 10-30% of costs for energy-efficient purchases, including biomass stoves, various heating/air conditioning devices, insulation, water heaters and windows and doors, geothermal heat pumps, residential small wind turbines, and more.
YOUR HEART
Childcare/Eldercare costs: To take advantage of the Child and Dependent Care Credit, you’ll need documentation of the name, address, and Tax ID number for any care provider you’ve used for your kids or other dependents. Whether you’re using a babysitter from down the street or employing the services of a daycare facility (for either children or adults), use federal form W-10, Dependent Care Provider’s Identification and Certification.
Even if you’re not planning to run for elected office, be sure you’re not running afoul of Nanny Tax rules regarding FICA (Social Security and Medicare) and FUTA (unemployment insurance). Use a Nanny Tax calculator and keep careful records of what you paid, when, what you withheld and what you submitted to the IRS.
Charitable donations: You may get a nice form letter on a non-profit’s stationery, or they may bury your acknowledgment as tiny text in asterisked comments at the bottom of requests for further donations, so be diligent about opening your mail. A charitable contribution confirmation should include the name of the qualifying charitable organization, a date of donation or at least the date of the acknowledgment (i.e., something to prove the tax year of the donation) and a dollar amount (or a description of materials if an “in-kind” (non-monetary) donation was made).
Not every charity confirms donations in writing. For your protection, keep your own records regarding donations you make. Use the charitable request letter or even a plain piece of paper to mark the date, dollar amount and method by which you paid (check number or credit card name), and file it away. Again, if you use a financial dashboard, identifying all of your donation amounts will be easier. If not, read through your credit card statements and highlight the charitable donations.
YOUR HEAD
Educational expenses: Higher learning can be deducted and the number and type of credits (the Hope Credit, Lifetime Learning Credit, American Opportunity Credit), Savings Bond programs and more can be dizzying. Just be sure that in addition to keeping your 1099-T (for tuition) and 1099-E (for educational interest), maintain transcripts that show your periods of academic enrollment, as well as canceled checks, credit card statements or other receipts that verify the dates of payment and amounts you spent on tuition, books, lab materials, student fees, etc.
Work-related costs: Un-reimbursed employee expenses may include costs for your vehicle or for travel, meals, entertainment or even client gifts. Unfortunately, you have to itemize and not take the Standard Deduction for these to do you any good, and your combined itemized expenses must exceed 2.5% or more of your AGI. Since you have no way of knowing in January what kinds of expenses your employer might force you to rack up in July, start maintaining a folder for these records right away. If you didn’t save receipts during the year, your credit card should provide proof for the largest of the expenses, like airfare and hotel costs.
Proof of payment for jury duty: Yes, it’s your civic duty, and yes, you probably got paid less per day than what you spent at Starbucks to stay awake in the jury box. You might receive a 1099 if you racked up enough days of service, but be sure to keep your own records regarding this kind of payment. If your employers required you to turn your jury duty payments over them, keep records so you can request an adjustment to reduce your AGI.
Tips: If you work in the food industry or a personal service profession where you receive tips, the IRS expects you to keep track of and report what you’ve made. (Yes. Really.) Use a mobile app like TipCounter or Tip Log to record of the tips you took in and what you were required to “tip out” to other support staff members (like bus boys, shampooers, etc.). If you prefer paper, keep a notebook; the IRS form 4070A is pretty clunky.
Self-employed/small business expenses: If you own your own business, you need a unique, separate filing system for all your business-related expenses, including tax paperwork. Check the classic Paper Doll post Organizing Your Tax Paperwork–Part 3: Get Your Business (Receipts) Off The Ground to make sure you capture all the essentials.
I hope this series of Taxing Conversations helps you ramp up your efforts to organize for tax time. Remember, Paper Doll is a professional organizer; in the language of the web, IANAA (I am not an accountant) and IANYA (I am not your accountant). For individual tax-related questions, please contact an authorized tax preparation specialist or financial planner.
Taxing Conversations (Part 2): Organizing Fun With Forms
Last time, we talked about simple steps for organizing the paperwork for your taxes. As Paper Doll mentioned, it all begins with gathering the right documents. Every taxpayer’s situation is different, but we’ll review the most common items you should be seeking and collecting in your Tax Prep folder.
Today, we’ll review the tax support documents called information returns. These are sent to you from outside entities and the law requires them to be provided, generally by January 31st, so they should require the least amount of effort on your part.
W-2 (Wage and Tax Statement)
If you’ve ever had a job, you’ve probably received a W-2. Not to be confused with a Federal W-4 (the form you fill out so that your employer knows how much tax to withhold), the W-2 is the form your employer gives you (and sends to the IRS) to report how much you were paid (in wages, salaries and tips) and, if applicable, how much money was withheld from you and paid to federal and/or state governments for taxes and FICA (Social Security and Medicare).
Federal, state and local taxes, FICA, unemployment insurance and a few other withholdings are considered statutory payroll tax deductions. Statutes, or laws, require them. Wage garnishments for lawsuits or child support may be the result of non-statutory legal rulings specific to an individual. Your W-2 may also indicate other amounts withheld from your check, which are voluntary payroll deductions. These can include health and life insurance premiums, 401(k) or other retirement contributions, regular donations to the United Way, union dues, etc.
There are generally multiple copies of the same Form W-2. Your employers submit copy A directly to the Social Security Administration and keep copy D for their records. Copies B and C are for you — you send one to the IRS with your federal tax return and keep one for your own records. And, just to make sure you’re paying attention, copies 1 and 2 are provided to file with any applicable state or local tax authorities. (Don’t ask why they aren’t copies E and F. Paper Doll suspects it’s just to perturb her.)
Employers should mail W-2s by the last day of January, so if you haven’t received yours by Valentine’s Day, contact Human Resources (or, y’know, Madge, with the beehive hairdo, down the hall, as applicable). W-2s are usually mailed to the address listed on your W-4, though small businesses may just hand them to employees. Consider a few issues:
- Did you change employers recently? If you had more than one job this year, be sure that you have received W-2s from each employer. If you changed jobs at the same company, you’ll generally only receive one W-2 from each employer, not one per position.
- Did you change addresses since you filled out your W-4? There’s only so much a former employer will do to track you down and give you your W-2. Keep the boss updated!
Just because you don’t have your W-2 doesn’t mean the IRS didn’t get its Copy A. The IRS knows what you made, so be sure you do, too! (If your employer is no longer in business or is otherwise not responsible to your requests, the IRS has a procedure to allow you to file your taxes in the absence of a W-2.)
When you receive your W-2, examine it carefully. Do the numbers seem right? If possible, compare them to the final pay stub you got for last year. Because the calendar year ended mid-week (and therefore, mid-pay period for most people), the numbers won’t correspond exactly, but they’ll be close enough for you to spot if something is seriously wrong. The sooner you call your employer’s attention to an error, the sooner you can prepare your return. (And again, that’s a good thing!)
W-2G is a cousin of the W-2. If you go to a casino and win more than $600 in any gambling session (congrats, by the way!), the “house” will request your Tax ID and either prepare a W-2G on the spot, or send it to you in January of the following year. Note: the IRS knows about your winnings, but not about your losses. To deduct losses, the IRS requires you to be able to provide receipts, tickets, statements or other records that show the amount of both your winnings and losses.
1099
A 1099 is a form that basically says, “hey, we paid you some money for something other than being an employee.” You get a copy; the IRS gets a copy.
There’s not just one type of 1099; actually, there are a whole variety of 1099s. Some of the more common are:
Got a bank account? This form reflects the interest income you receive from interest-bearing savings and checking accounts, money market bank accounts, certificates of deposit, and other accounts that pay interest. It also notes whether foreign or U.S. taxes were withheld and if there were any penalties assigned for early withdrawal from an interest-bearing account. Internet-only banks, like CapitalOne360, require you to log into your account to get your 1099-INT, so don’t count on it coming by mail.
Do you own stock or taxable investments? This form indicates the dividends or capital gains you received as an investor. Your broker, plan services company, mutual fund company or other type of investment company will send this form. Not all dividends are created equally; ask your tax professional if you have any that seem unusual or complicated.
This is what you may receive from a client or customer if you were an independent contractor (i.e., self-employed) or if you got any kind of miscellaneous revenue for doing work for someone else when you were not actually considered an employee. Even if someone paid you for doing work as an independent contractor, they may not know they should be sending you a 1099-MISC. This is why, if you are self-employed or irregularly employed, it’s still vital to keep track of your incoming revenue.
Your 1099s may be hiding in plain sight. Sometimes, instead of sending a 1099 in a separate envelope, a bank or brokerage house may include a 1099 form in the same envelope as (or even perforated, at the bottom of) a quarterly or end-of-year financial statement, so be sure to check all the “official” mail that arrives. Multiple forms may be sent as a “combined 1099,” scrolling across multiple pages, so check the reverse of other forms, in case you seem to be missing one.
A 1099 doesn’t always indicate that you were literally paid money. For example, a 1099-C indicates that a party has forgiven a debt, like a mortgage or part of a credit card balance. You may owe money on forgiven debts, and the 1099-C alerts the IRS that since you didn’t pay money owed, it’s as if you received money.
The IRS maintains a list of other types of 1099s and 1099-related forms.
1098 (Mortgage Interest Statement)
A 1098 is not a 1099 with low-self-esteem. This form reflects the interest you paid on your mortgage, which is generally deductible on your federal taxes. If you rent, you won’t have a 1098; the same goes if you paid off your mortgage prior to the most recent tax year.
There are sub-types of 1098s for things other than interest on property loans. For example, you might receive a 1098-C from a charitable organization if you donated car, boat or airplane. (Paper Doll suspects that if you donated an airplane, you probably tripped over my blog post on your way to Happy Millionaire Magazine.) Your college might provide you with a 1098-T to indicate you paid tuition, or a financial institution might send a 1098-E to show you’ve paid student loan interest.
Chance are good that you will receive a W-2, 1099 and/or 1098 in any given year, but there are many other less common information return forms. This lengthy list and description of all tax-related forms can help you if you receive something mysterious and vaguely official in your mailbox.
Again, these are the forms that others are required to send to you. Next time, we’ll finish up by exploring other kinds of paperwork that you may need to locate and organize to prepare your taxes, primarily documents that may take a little nagging or detective work on your part.
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