COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL 8 Family Child Care Tax Companion If you don’t have the proper records to support a claim, enter the item in the organizer anyway (even without a receipt) and then discuss it with your tax professional. Depending on the records that are missing, he may be able to show you how to reconstruct your records so that they will be acceptable to the IRS. (The Family Child Care Record- Keeping Guide also includes an explanation of how to reconstruct missing records.) Or he may advise you not to try to claim that particular expense without proper documentation. Gathering Information for the Organizer Each section of this organizer includes detailed instructions for gathering the appropriate information from record-keeping tools and entering it in the organizer. • The Redleaf Calendar-Keeper is a monthly system for tracking your income and expenses by hand; it includes monthly and year-end charts and specialized worksheets that will make it easy to fill out this organizer. • The Inventory-Keeper is a tool for tracking depreciable property, such as furniture, appliances, and equipment. • The Mileage-Keeper is a tool for tracking your vehicle expenses. If you used these record-keeping tools to track your records during the year, gather- ing the information you need and recording it in this organizer will be easier—you can simply print out a computer report or find a summary page and look up the totals. You will be able to skip most of the calculations in the organizer worksheets and just write the totals in at the bottom of the tables. If you didn’t use any record-keeping tools this year, you will need to collect all the records that you have kept this year, add them up, and enter the information in the work- sheets in each section of the organizer. Contact Information Taxpayer Information Your Name Name of Your Business (if any) Date You Began Your Business Address Phone Cell Phone E-mail Tax Professional Information Name of Your Tax Professional Address Phone Cell Phone E-mail COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL