How Do You Calculate Income Tax Using Basic Excel Functions?
The hard part about preparing income tax returns is keeping records and knowing how much you gave to charity or how much you spent on that business trip. If you have good records, the tax forms themselves are fairly easy. The math is not too difficult. You need to know how to add, multiply and look things up in tables. There are a lot of software packages that you can purchase that are designed to do the math for you, but if you have Microsoft Excel it’s not at all difficult to create your own spreadsheet. Even when you use purchased software, it doesn’t hurt to itemize some of your calculations in Excel such as mileage or summing up your various charitable contributions. Collect all of your paperwork together in one place. This should actually start at the beginning of the year, with files for pay stubs, receipts, bills and donations. If you don’t have time to sort and file everything throughout the year, at least keep a box or bin where you put all of your tax receipts during the yea
