There’s a lot of ways computers make our lives harder. Printers. Crashing. Windows Vista. But there are moments when computers connect us to truly wonderful things. Things like helping us by lodging taxes online.

That’s right. No fuss. No muss. A few clicks. A few forms. And you’re done with your taxes for the year. When you’re lodging taxes online you don’t have to spend days getting a headache over maths. You can be done in an afternoon. That is, if you pick the right place to go. Some sites (some tax offices…) make the whole thing more confusing than it needs to be. So here are 3 steps for lodging taxes online even easier, when computers go and muck things up again.

• Collect your forms before. Get any documents you might need together before you even think about lodging your taxes online. You need to make sure you can answer any questions they throw your way before they’re thrown. So grab last years tax records, this years pay stubs, your notice of assessment, and all needed receipts. Make sure they’re organized first. Sloppy documentation never helped anyone. The faster you can find a file, the faster you’re done.
• Make sure you have the time. Lodging taxes online is deceptively simple. It might be easier than sitting at the table with a calculator, but you’ll still need to block some time. So clear a Saturday afternoon, tell mum you can’t come over Sunday, call in sick to work: do what you need to to give yourself time. You don’t want to have to pause your lodging to deal with life. It’s like a pulling off a plaster–best done in one go. Take your taxes seriously and give yourself some time this year.
• Make sure your computer is up to date. There’s nothing worse than almost being done with lodging your taxes online only to have the computer crash in the middle and lose everything. So when you’re lodging taxes online this year, please make sure all your virus protection, hardware, motherboards, whatever is up to date. Don’t give yourself a reason to curse (as if taxes weren’t enough of a reason!) Take the time to check it all works beforehand…and then start lodging. The frustration will be worth it and pay off in the future too!

All that’s well and good, of course, but there’s one secret fourth step: breathing. Relax. Thanks to technology lodging taxes online is easier and simpler than anything before it. With a little foresight (and maybe a cuppa to soothe while it’s going on) you can be done with your taxes and back to more important things in no time.