One of the most costly mistakes that you can make all year and perhaps over a lifetime is forgetting to minimize your tax burden by leaving out important tax information such as deductions or tax credits. Leaving these out can end up costing you some big bucks when it comes to receiving your tax refund. You can potentially leave hundreds of dollars on the table for Uncle Sam to keep for his self by simply leaving out one number.
The idea is to minimize the amount that you pay taxes on by reducing your taxable income. The way that we reduce our taxable income is by taking deductions or what is commonly referred to as “write offs”. Writing off expenses such as charitable contributions, casualty loss and medical expenses can greatly reduce the amount of taxes that you pay.
It may be the case that you were not thinking about writing expenses off on your taxes so you never documented anything and didn’t save any receipts. If this is the case you want to keep in mind things that you can deduct from your taxes next year so that you are prepared. Keep a folder with all of your supporting documents throughout the year. When tax time comes around you can open up your folder and start adding up all the money that you are going to save on your taxes. What may seem at first to not be worth the effort will quickly add up.
If you are looking for some commonly overlooked tax deductions you have come to the right place. Here is a short list of items that are sometimes overlooked:
Medical expenses
Charitable contributions
Travel and uniform expense not reimbursed by your employer
Property tax
Vehicle sales tax
Vehicle expenses
Home mortgage interest
Casualty and theft
Classroom expenses
Educators expense
Performing arts
There are many other tax deductions that were not mentioned here. Check with a qualified tax consultant in order to maximize your 2009 tax refund.
Author: Mike Smitt