Saturday, April 2, 2011

Top 5 End Of Year/Season Tax Tips

1. Set up end of year medical appointments for doctor, eye exams, dentist, etc. to avoid losing any unused portion of a flexible spending account you may have. Also this will increase your potential medical deduction if you itemize. This itemize deduction is currently any medical expense over 7.5% of your income. This will increase to having to be over 10% of your income thanks to OBAMACARE. Which will make it that much harder to take this deduction.

2. Make contributions to any qualified retirement plans before end of year ( you can contribute to IRA'S by April 18 of this year and it will be credited to last years taxes as a adjustment to your taxable income) These contributions will help lower your taxable income.

3. Make charitable contributions by Dec. 31st so you can use the additional donations on your Schedule A. Make December the month you go through all your belongings to see what you could donate to Goodwill or other places. Use your camera or cell phone to take pictures of all you donate so you have an electronic record to back up the deduction.

4. If you are self-employed delay all your December billings until January so you can reduce your taxable income for the current year.

5. If you are expecting a large capital gain this year- consider selling off some stock to generate a loss. But you can not purchase substantially similar stock for 30 days before or after the sale you used to generate a loss.

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