It's important to think about hurricanes, tornadoes, and other disasters so you're prepared in case they happen. This includes safeguarding your tax forms and other financial records. First, you could take advantage of electronic record keeping. So see if you can receive your bank statements and related documents by email. For paper documents such as W-2s and tax returns, scan them into your computer and save them in an electronic format. Or create duplicate copies and store them in a separate, but safe, place. Now if you own a business, make sure you create a plan for resuming your operations after a disaster. Finally, the IRS has disaster loss workbooks for both individual taxpayers and businesses to help you create a record of what you own before disaster strikes. For more information, check out this page, IRS.gov/disaster.
