Tackle Taxes Like a Boss

With Adobe Document Cloud, it’s easy to simplify and streamline every step in the tax prep process.

The reality: most people hate doing their taxes. But some can’t get enough — one in three says they “love” getting down with their returns.

Admittedly, it’s because they’re anticipating (or hoping for) a rock-solid refund.

That said, this year there’s another reason to join the one in three who love tax prep: the latest innovations from Adobe Acrobat DC and the Adobe Scan mobile app are streamlining and simplifying the process.

The ultimate remedy to tax document overload

The average taxpayer can have dozens of unique documents from W-2s and 1099s to forms tied to investment income, business losses, and childcare expenses. Then there’s the invoices, receipts, and photos, all from different sources and in different formats. It’s almost too easy to be overwhelmed with documents.

With the newest Adobe Scan and Acrobat DC release, taxpayers can easily digitize, combine, and organize tax documents without the heavy lifting — and without piles of papers taking over your workspace.

What’s more, with the new Document Cloud Home view, you can work on any device, any time, managing critical tax documents on desktop, mobile, and web. This simplified home view offers a single place to track and manage all tax documents shared, whether you’re on desktop, mobile, or web.

How to use the new Adobe Scan and Acrobat DC for tax prep

To get started, gather all of your tax documents, including both paper and digital. Once pulled together, it’s easy to organize everything for easy searching and sharing. Here’s how:

Step 1:

Turn print copies into digital PDFs with Adobe Scan

Download and open the free Adobe Scan app. Adobe Scan lets you capture pictures of each document and crop, adjust, and enhance them as needed.

You can scan multiple pages to create a single PDF as well as scan-in additional pages and add them to an existing PDF within Adobe Scan.

Finish by renaming your files and saving them as a PDF.

Step 2:

Combine multiple file types into one organized PDF with Acrobat

Acrobat DC subscribers and Creative Cloud members have access to these capabilities in Acrobat DC, but if you don’t have access, download a free Acrobat DC trial.

Open Acrobat and choose the Adobe Scan folder. Open all the PDFs of your scanned documents and select Combine Files — each PDF will open in a separate tab.

When prompted to choose which files to combine, select Add Files, then Add Open Files. Add the Adobe Scan PDFs into a single PDF document.

Next, select Add Files again, and choose all the digital documents from your desktop folder. Acrobat will be able to combine multiple file types — Microsoft Word documents, Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, and images — so you can add any and all documents at once.

When you’ve finished selecting documents for your PDF file, select Open.

Before combining the documents, you can rearrange, rotate, or delete any pages no longer needed.

Once all of your documents are added and ordered in a way that will be easy for you or your accountant to understand, select Combine. Acrobat will automatically choose a default file name, which you will likely want to change. Finally, rename and save the file.

Step 3:

Share — and safeguard — your tax PDF

Now with your tax documents organized, you can continue sharing and protect your PDF.

To do this, select the blue Share tool to send as a link or an attachment. Simply add your accountant’s email address in the Invite People panel.

You will be given the option to email the PDF as a link or an attachment. When the PDF has been received, you’ll get an email notification.

Once sent, keep track of every view, download, and, as needed, comment along the way.

If you’re worried about unauthorized people seeing your tax documents, select the Protect tool. then Encrypt, and choose Encrypt with Password. Only people who have the password will be able to open, print, or edit the document. You can also use the Redact tool to hide sensitive information.

Step 4:

And when it’s time to sign…

After your tax return is prepared, your accountant will likely want final signatures from you and your spouse to confirm all checks out. This, too, can happen within Acrobat.

Using the Fill and Sign tool, open the PDF in Acrobat DC, then click the Sign icon in the toolbar to sign in the proper field.

All of these features and apps are available to Acrobat DC subscribers, and Creative Cloud members who subscribe to the All Apps plan — and they’re available to customers now, just in time for tax season.

While it’s no guarantee of a whopping refund, Acrobat and Adobe Scan are great apps to help you get your taxes documents organized, in order, and out the door in less time — without having to deal with all the paper.

Update Adobe Scan and Acrobat DC now to take advantage of these new features.