Tax season may not be upon us just yet, but it’s never too soon to look into the tax deductions that may be available to you. Many require you to have proof in paperwork, especially in the event of an audit, and if it’s not information that your employer can provide, it’s up to you to keep accurate records. Here are some common tax deductions that you can start preparing for today.
- Interest on your mortgage. Let’s be honest-interest is pretty much all you’re paying for in the first few years of owning your home. Of course, I doubt there’s even a chance you’d let this deduction slip by, so just consider it a friendly reminder and something to look forward to when preparing your taxes.
- Health insurance premiums and Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). This might not increase your tax return significantly, but it sure feels good to be able to deduct some of those expensive premiums we all have to pay for health care, particularly if you’re self-employed. (Hint: if you are self-employed, you get to deduct more than the rest of us.)
- Student loan interest. That’s right. Uncle Sam lets you deduct this one, too. You should receive a statement from your bank come tax time to help you with this part, so be sure not to toss it aside or let it get lost!
- IRA contributions. This only applies to traditional IRAs. You’re going to have to pay taxes on your withdrawals when you reach retirement age, so prior to that point in time, you get to deduct your contributions. If you have a Roth, you don’t get to deduct, but you won’t have to pay any taxes on your withdrawals.
- Your home office. If you’re self-employed, don’t overlook this deduction. However, do check into the specific restrictions to make sure you qualify. For example, a room in your home that is purely used for your business counts as a home office. Using the computer in the corner of your bedroom does not. Once you’re certain you qualify, you can deduct not only the space itself, the mortgage/rent payment respective to it, electricity, etc., but you can also deduct your computer, business phone line, office supplies, etc.
- Charitable contributions. You probably already know this one, but did you know that it’s not just for monetary contributions anymore? Did you donate some old clothes or used items to a place like Goodwill or your local church? These can be deducted. It’s best if you make sure to get some form of a receipt if possible.
- “Green” credit. If you recently renovated your home to be more energy-efficient and “green” or perhaps bought a qualifying fuel-saving, hybrid, or otherwise “green” car, the government will reward you with a tax deduction.
If you’re uncertain as to whether or not you qualify for these or any other deductions that you find, don’t be afraid to consult a tax advisor—you can deduct tax preparation services, too! Home tax software such as TurboTax will help you catch deductions by asking you easy-to-follow questions.
1:39 pm on October 11th, 2009 1
This article is baloney. Millionaires don’t worry about pennyante deductions. Take the standard deduction & you don’t have to worry about the IRA. They compute the bhalance between companies with strong management, growth potential, dividend history, & strong competitiveness. Forget about keeping up with the Joneses & do not live up to your earnings. Make an investment plan & STICK WITH IT. Beware of promises of higher returns than the market as a whole. Stay away from mutual funds & do your own research. Brokers don’t know squat about investing which is why they are brokers not investors. Tiups are for suckers & what the “crowd” is doing is for suckers. Never sell in a panic but use that opportunity to buy, buy, buy. Remember, GET RICH SLOWLY! That’s what my rich mother taught me & it works.
1:34 am on October 12th, 2009 2
You have to already be rich to do any of these things. I guess the statement remains true; one must be have money to make money.
1:40 am on October 12th, 2009 3
Dreika are you flippin’ retarded? You don’t have to be rich to get richer, that is BS. Many wealthy and rich people earned their money by working hard, investing well, living within their means , living off a budget, continueing their education to advance in the career they had, not making bills they could not pay, keepping insight on their credit, and overall just making sound financial choices. Yes, SOME people are rich because wealth has always been in their family also known as “old” money, some are lucky enough to win the lottery, some come all into an unexpected windfall of money such as an unknown distant relative they inherit a fortune from. However, most wealthy and affulent families and indivduals worked their way to that status; examples are Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Madonna, Donald Trump…BARACK OBAMA!!! They did not come from money, never had any done for them and weren ot born with a silver spoon. You are sound like a typical, lazy, welfare minded , societal mooch that thinks everything is owed to you, everything should be free for you and you should never have to put an iota of effort into anything. You will forever be poor and on some government or charity assistance program because you don’t have the intelligence, skills, motivation, knowledge, drive or care to do better. Go whine somewhere else, no one wants to hear your “you have to have money to make more money” nonsense because it is truly nauseating. Stop blaming rich people for your problems you inept and listless nag.
1:47 am on October 12th, 2009 4
Mike are a troll or just another internet bully? Or wait…are you just an angry, angsty teenage or failed adult that never did a thing with his life? Dreika never claimed one thing you said she did and why did you assume she is on any sort of welfare? What she is said is true in a sense because it is easier to invest and put money into making more money when you have the funding to back it up! Also, besides Bill Gates and Madonna, every person you named DID come from a background that had silver spoons hanging out the orfices where the sun doesn’t shine! I hear that constantly about Obama and how he came from poverty..ummm no he didn’t! He went to expensive , elite private schools his entire life, lived all over the world, went to ivy league colleges that were paid for for him and never had a job where he ever knew what it was like to struggle. Obama MADE THE CHOICE to live in the inner city and work in community organizations with low income families and made the choice to live in areas where poverty afflicted the community. He certainly didn’t grow up knowing any of that, and it racist when I say that all too often people assume any person of color MUST have come from some ghetto situation…it is racist to assume they all did! I am not going on with an anti-Obama rant, that isn’t what that was I was just clarifying that it is a common misconception that Obama was raised in an envrioment where he went hungry for days and never had what he needed. In addition to that Mike, before you go on about other people lacking in education maybe you should brust up on your life skills.
1:51 am on October 12th, 2009 5
Teena you must be another GOP neo-nazi thug. Obama DID come from the inner city and was raised around violence and poverty and gangs and all that stuff and his family did struggle to make ends meet. That is why he is so understanding and sympathetic to families now that are going through hardships because he has been there. He never went to a private school,where did you get that? He went to inner city, gang ridden schools and he IS American contrary to what people like you claims, he didn’t live all over the world! Also, he went to community colleges because that is all he could afford and he worked his way though Harvard and all those other schools he went to. He paid for them all by himself with no help at all because when he went to college black people couldn’t get money for college. What the hell is a ivy school anyway? I guess that is another racial remark meaning a white only school. And I have an education thank you, I am fuckin’ doctor and was a lawyer for awhile also! What did YOU do with your life? I worked my ass to get where I am and I am wealthy because I worked hard for it. Go back to your preschool forums and stay there ..both you AND Dreika!
1:54 am on October 12th, 2009 6
Mike your so ridiculous there are no words for you. Not one thing you said about Obama is true! He never even claimed ANY of that! You made EVERYTHING you said up, totally out of thin air, pulled it out of your ass and MADE IT UP! You call me a racist? You are the one that because Obama is African-American put him in some after-school-special, sterotyped worlds of the poor , struggling, black man in the inner-city school! Read his books, that wasn’t his life AT ALL! Also, you are a doctor AND a lawyer? Yet you don’t know what an ivy league school is? It has nothing to do with race you imbecile, ivy league is a school like Harvard, Yale, Princeton…ring a bell? And yeah you are really sound like you have a medical and law degree…sure what you say little one. **rolls eyes and refuses to ever come back to this blog comment page again**
1:57 am on October 12th, 2009 7
Good Teena leave! Yes I am a doctor, I own three practices in three different cities and I am the medical director of two different well known hospitals! I don’t need to read Obama’s books because he is a close friend of mine! You have NO idea how important I am and who you just insulted! I could care less what an ivy school is, the colleges I went to were far better than any of those and are nearly impossible to get into! Like only one out of every 100 applicants are accpeted so top that you stupid racist moron! This is why stupidity should be painful, then maybe people like Dreika and Teena would shut their idiot mouths for once long enough to LEARN something about life and stop sounding like jackasses!
2:00 am on October 12th, 2009 8
“I could care less what an ivy school is, the colleges I went to were far better than any of those and are nearly impossible to get into! Like only one out of every 100 applicants are accpeted so top that you stupid racist moron!”
Mike-It is “couldn’t care less” not could. If you could care less that means you care somewhat. Get the correct , cliche, phrase correct please. Also, you went to a college that is better than an ivy league university? Wow, guess you know of some secret, uber, super dooper, special school somewhere because it doesn’t get any better than ivy league…sorry. Are you done having your toddler fit now and learn to function as an adult or do you need to go stand in the corner somewhere while the grown-ups talk?
2:01 am on October 12th, 2009 9
This forum is nothing but a bunch of racist, judgemental, uneducated idiots! ALL OF YOU!
2:02 am on October 12th, 2009 10
Mike-We are judgemental? You have put down everyone on here so far and then claimed to have some high and lofty education that isn’t even possible. You are the one that started the argument on here when you attacked Dreika out of nowhere, for no reason. If you are such an important doctor don’t you have some hospital to go staff right now?
2:03 am on October 12th, 2009 11
Whatever I have better things to do like save lives and give my friends in government a call!
3:14 pm on October 22nd, 2009 12
Whoa! what a forum. This is obviously a very sensitive subject but do you think that abusing other people’s views, particularly in the written form, is a smart idea? I guess we all make judgement calls based on our own life experiences and what is relative to us. My own story has made world media going from generational welfare to multi-millionaire, but I thought I had experienced real hardship until……….recently visiting Cairo, Egypt and seeing squalor and poverty on mass.No clean running water, typhoid infected towns, no sewerage and no welfare or support systems whatsoever!!All of a sudden I don’t feel my life was that hard…..even living homeless.
It is possible to achieve wealth all the ways Mike has suggested and it can be done from hardship……….(see my story on youtube ‘Goodbye Welfare’) but the biggest obstacle for many is loss of ‘hope’ and the belief in oneself. Not hard to understand when just maintaining survival can be uch a struggle.
To me, education is the key…..especially financial education…something we are NOT taught at school.
Tracy
5:18 pm on December 11th, 2009 13
Great site and info. thanks. If you need any hard money funding we can help just check us out.
8:34 am on February 5th, 2010 14
Thank you for all your knowledge. There are information that I did not know. Using a computer that on your bedroom corner, is not deductible. Thank you so much!
1:10 pm on February 7th, 2010 15
Are those tips valid in every country?
1:05 pm on March 14th, 2010 16
Mike sounds like he has some problems.
11:32 pm on April 22nd, 2010 17
Thank you for all your knowledge. There are information that I did not know. Using a computer that on your bedroom corner, is not deductible. Thank you so much!
11:30 pm on August 6th, 2010 18
If you have a home office in Missouri it is the percentage of space the office takes up and the same percentage for utilities.