Know what to expect.
If you know that you are going to want to itemize your deductions, then pay attention to what you can deduct all year, and plan for it. If you are going to need to have a tally of all of your medical expenses for the year, then plan for that all year long, and have that easy to access and on hand. Knowing what you can expect from your taxes, and the best way to file, fill them out, etc. is going to help you to be more efficient when the time comes because you will not be scrambling around to find receipts or locate documents, etc.

Know deductions.
Knowing which deductions you can take will help you to be more efficient at tax time because you will be able to stay organized and have things ready before you ever meet with your tax professional, or sit down in front of your computer with your tax software. When you get your taxes done for the previous year, ask your tax professional what deductions you can expect for the year you are in, and then make a file for each of those, whether on your computer, or a physical file, and track the things you will be deducting so that you can easily input the information next year come tax time.

Get professional help.
A tax professional is going to make managing your taxes more efficient because they are going to be aware of any changes to tax law, to the deductions and credits you can qualify for, and any tricky ways to input your tax information in order to qualify for the biggest exemptions, credits, and get the biggest return, or owe less. A tax professional is trained to help you find the most deductions, and lower your tax liability. So, if you have a complicated return to file, or if you are not as savvy on tax law as you should be to efficiently do your taxes, consider the benefits of spending a little more to get your taxes done right. Also, usually a tax professional will come with some sort of guarantee. If you were to get audited, they would stand by their work.

Plan all year.
If you want to be efficient at managing your taxes, then start planning all year. This is especially important for business taxes where write-offs and deductions make a significant difference in your tax liability. If you plan all year, you can get the maximum deductions because you will not be forgetting anything that you should have remembered. When you buy pens for your office, or pay a plumber to go to your rental, or donate to a charity, you can immediately go home and make note of it so you do not forget several months later when you are filing taxes.