Tax Tips To Save Money NEXT Year
The following guest post is from Trisha Wagner. Trisha is a freelance writer for DepositAccounts.com, where you can compare rates from dozens of banks in one place. She writes regularly on the topics of personal finance and saving money.
It happens every year when tax time rolls around people scramble to find ways to make filing their taxes easier and limit the damage to their wallets. What many people forget is by the time you file your taxes there isn’t anything you can do to change last years information, however you CAN take note and make changes now that will help you save money a year from now. The following basic tips can help you make the changes needed today and at the end of the upcoming year to take the bite out of your next tax bill.
- Deductions- Are you claiming all the deductions that you are entitled to? Many people mistakenly claim the standard deductions without fully investigating what they specifically may qualify for in their personal situation.
- Keep track of all business relates expenses and receipts- If applicable track all expenses related to a home business. Get into the habit of doing this systematically, weekly or monthly to ensure you don’t lose receipts or track of what you spent your money on as time goes by.
- Remember donations to charity- Ideally you should be donating to charities that have a personal meaning to you with the added bonus of being about to lower your taxable income at the end of the year. Remember to keep receipts for charitable donations.
- Take all applicable tax credits- Are you getting all the tax credits you are eligible for? If you have children under the age of 17 you may qualify for a $1,000 tax credit. There are other tax credits for various things such as adopting a child, buying your first home, earned income tax credits, saver’s tax credit, child and dependent care credit and education-related credits.
- Tax-free investments- If you are looking for a tax friendly investment you might consider tax-free municipal or government bonds or other similar investments. The returns are not as high as other investments but can be good for a high-income individual.
- Tax-free gifting- If you are have significant assets you may give up to $12,000 away tax-free for each individual you choose. Typically this works well for retirees who may want to gift money now instead of bequeathing it to someone in their estate.
- Review Tax Returns- Specifically Form 1040 for missed tax opportunities from the previous year. You should pay special attention to the Taxable Interest, Tax-Exempt Income, and Dividend Income lines. Your tax bracket has critical affects on the effective yield of your investments.
- Check your work twice- Taxpayers could save millions of dollars each year if they took the time to double-check their work. Error in tax preparation and on tax returns can be very costly for taxpayers.
It is important to remember that your financial situation, the economy and the tax laws change from year to year so it is important to keep up to date on tax information to ensure you are covering the basics each year and filing your taxes in a way that benefits you the most.
Solid tips!
The sooner you start the more you can save!
Excellent Advice…more ways to save, free e-filing.
Here are a few services you might want to check out
TaxSlayer
H&R TaxCut
TaxAct
These services will all suffice for the basic return. H&R likely handles the more complex itemization scenarios.
warning – Whatever online service you select. Look at the sites SSL authentication. Each of the ones I’ve listed offer Extended Validation SSL, the most robust security available.
You can tell by launching the site, begin the process and the url turns Green, when you select the company (green) name in the navigation bar you will toggle the actual certificate, date issue, issuer etc.
Happy returns everyone!
Keeping receipts is important not only for tax donations but for items you might be donating in the future. We donated a treadmill that was taking up room in our garage and no longer used to Salvation Army. We need to find the receipt so we can prove the deduction exceeded $300 in value.
Good tips. Students should definitely be aware of the Hope and Lifetime credits, and compare the savings they’ll receive using them (if they’re eligible) vs. the tuition deduction for AGI.
Good reminder to check previous tax returns. I did that last year, found a few things I’d forgotten and saved a bit of money.
thanks for the reminders. now is definitely the time to be mindful of next year’s taxes. on a slightly different-yet-related topic, keep in mind DINKSfinance’s tip to check your credit card statements once a month from this point forward. humans have a way of sneaking in extra $dollars$ for tips etc, esp during hard times…
Danny –
We used TaxAct this year to file. Just a note that the free program does handle more complex situations as well: Schedule C, itemizing, and other “non-basic” forms.
Great program, all three are worth looking into.
Thanks for sharing such great info, it will surely help many people to get such detailed info.