Save, Invest, & Grow Your Money
Did you know, you don’t have to join in the last-minute rush to file your taxes? There is an easy way to file an automatic tax extension that gives you an extra six months to file your return.
No questions asked.
It only works if you fill out the right form and send it in by the tax deadline.
If you won’t finish your tax return by April 15, find out how to file for a federal tax extension. Continue Reading…
Yesterday, the IRS officially began accepting all 2012 tax returns. Their system is finally updated with the fiscal cliff changes just six weeks before the tax deadline.
Anyone stuck waiting can finally get their returns ready and filed. That is, unless you’re like me and still waiting for the last few 1099s to show up. While you wait, here are a few last-minute tax return reminders to keep you busy.
The most common mistake most filers make is sending in a return with the wrong information. It gets worse if you’re expecting a tax refund. Direct deposit is fast, but it’s useless with the wrong bank account and routing numbers. Continue Reading…
One of the most overlooked areas of tax savings is understanding how realized gains and losses impact your taxes. When you sell an investment, calculating cost basis and good record keeping plays a vital role in controlling those savings now and in the future.
To confuse things the IRS made several cost basis reporting changes. It revamped stock basis reporting in 2011, followed by mutual fund, ETF and DRIPs (Dividend Reinvestment Plans) cost basis changes in 2012.
Some say it makes the process easier. Which it does. Really, it enforces accuracy so nobody fudges their numbers. Good or bad, the changes force you to make cost basis accounting decisions at the time of sale. This is easy enough when you sell all the shares of a stock.
But it doesn’t always work out that way. Maybe you want to sell half your shares. Then there are reinvested dividends to account for now. And the intricacies of mutual fund shares, reinvested distributions, and return of capital. Or you just want to rebalancing your portfolio. In other words, it’s complicated.
Yet, how you report cost basis directly affects your tax bill. And that is where you can save money. Continue Reading…
Updated for the 2012 tax year.
If you do your taxes or someone does them for you, here’s a tax preparation checklist to help organize everything and finish your tax return quickly.
Let’s face it, tax season is never a fun time when you have to dig up old documents that have been piled away for a year. The goal is to simplify things and save you time.
So, attach this list to your tax file and collect any important tax documents, receipts, and records as you get them. Having everything in one place, will make things easier.
This handy checklist will be updated each tax year, so you can save as much money as possible (or get a bigger refund). When you finally sit down with your accountant or online tax software the process will be quick and painless.
The last-minute fiscal cliff deal made several changes to the tax code. Most of the new tax law focuses on the 2013 tax brackets and tax credits and deductions going forward. One key area of concern were tax policies that expired at the end of 2011 but hadn’t been renewed for the 2012 tax year.
The American Taxpayer Relief Act retroactively restores many of those tax credits and deductions for the 2012 tax year. In turn, it could affect your tax return due this April. Hopefully, in a good way. It’s just too bad it took Congress until January 1st to fix the code. As I point out below, it’s caused a delay to the tax season that will affect many taxpayers. Continue Reading…