MONEY AND FINANCE

Tax Tips Today

Tax Tips Today
Tax tips come in a variety of shapes, sizes and value. It seems every guru who can spell tax has tips for sale. However, the best tax tips may be in front of your eyes as you prepare your return.

I am talking about your Form 1040. Most people look at this form as a necessary evil and put it in their file drawer after they mail off their tax package.

This author believes that is a big mistake. Let’s face facts. Most of us either don’t have the money to pay a professional financial planner or we don’t trust the advice we’d get from them.

Since this isn’t an article on professional financial planners, I’ll move on to how to use your Form 1040 as your personal non-paid financial planner. When you begin completing this form, you have your last year’s financial picture in front of you.

The form forces you to face your financial situation so why not use it to your advantage. For example, let’s say you have a huge amount of taxable interest you have to declare. By looking at this figure as more than a declaration, you can take steps to change it.

You can take some or all of the money generating this taxable interest and move it into an account paying tax free interest or one paying tax deferred interest. Either way, you have just reduced your tax obligation and that’s always a good thing.

The Form 1040 is compartmentalized into sections that deal with various types of income and expenses. This makes it super easy to determine if a particular investment should be changed, sold or moved at this juncture in time.

You can practically hear the form yelling at you now, right? It is saying something like, hey use me to your best advantage. Structure your today’s finances so you can reduce your taxes while at the same time building a retirement account you can’t outlive.

The tax tips are all over page one of the 1040 waiting for you to utilize. If you don’t have a financial planner’s eye, don’t worry. An ebook titled, “1040 Goldmine” has done the hard work for you. It covers the form section by section and makes suggestions as how to best use your dollars.

It only takes few minutes to peruse the 1040 once you’ve read 1040 Goldmine and begin to make the changes you believe are necessary. It is your money so you should get the most you can from it.

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