End Of Year Federal Income Tax Advice Tips and Tricks
Here they come. Articles, columns, emails, and websites by the dozens (hundreds? thousands?) each offering tax advice in the guise of tips and tricks while actually offering up nothing more than the same old retread of a supposed gold mine of tax savings. This is the true, cold, hard fact: There is virtually nothing you can do to lower the amount of taxes you pay on earnings that come in the form of a steady paycheck. Sorry, but it is true. Tax Advice and Tips and Tricks So, what exactly is in these so called advice articles? Mostly things that will not apply to most people, or nickel and dime savings that won’t make much of a dent. But, tax advice articles are popular, especially at year end. Let’s take a look at the most common advice. Pay Your Next Mortgage Payment By December 31 – This doesn’t lower your taxes so much as borrow a deduction from next year’s taxes. The idea is that by paying your January 1st mortgage payment in December, you get to deduct 13 moths worth of interest, instead of 12.(Mortgage payments used to be due on the 1st of the month, that isn’t always …