Comments on: Six Great Tax Breaks

By: jim

jim — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 21:16:47 +0000

If you mean like a 403b, I believe they are included.

By: Colleen

Colleen — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 16:22:11 +0000

Does anyone know if #3 applies to people who contribute to a state retirement system? Ex. Penn. State Retirement System for PA state employees? The form looks like it’s just for those contributing to Roth IRAs and 401Ks. Thanks.

By: Avery

Avery — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 14:09:12 +0000

If you have a SIMPLE or SEP, your contributions are due when you file your taxes (and not on April 15). This means that if you file an automatic 6-month extension for your taxes, then you also get a 6-month extension for making your contribution. So if you don’t have the cash on hand on April 15 for your SIMPLE or SEP, you take the extension, wait 6 months, make your contributions, then file your taxes with the deduction. I’ve done this for the past two years. This is at least one reason why your #6 is useful.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 08:28:02 +0000

Tax time is great for turning bad outcomes in one’s business into good news. Thanks to the expenses of pursuing a would-be major client (who ended up not signing…oh well, better luck next year) I was able to cut my FY05 AGI by almost $30,000, and will (when the deposits finally clear…which should be sometime next week, if not today or tomorrow) be getting back almost every penny of federal and state income tax I paid last year. (I certainly don’t think of myself as “low-income”, but thanks to the business writeoffs my AGI was low enough to qualify for that extra credit on my retirement savings too. Yay!)

Of course, I’d rather have _gotten_ the client and been in position to be a millionaire by the end of 2006, but since I didn’t get them, it’s cool that I can make such tasty tax lemonade.

I concur about extensions…I’ve never understood my friends who took them. If the government owes you a refund, better to get it ASAP. (Which is why I submit my taxes the same day I receive the last of my tax paperwork.) And if you owe them, you still have to pay by the normal deadline, and the extension only gives you extra time to fill out the paperwork.

By: jim

jim — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 20:21:53 +0000

They kind of got confusing mixing in text they intended for #5 into #4. They start talking about home office deductions in a tip about taking losses in stocks… I didn’t mention it in my thoughts but it seemed like an editorial error.

They also didn’t expand on the “Above The Line” deduction either and I would’ve had I had a little more time.

By: FMF

FMF — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 20:00:55 +0000

I posted on this too and would agree on your thoughts on #6. Why were “6 Tips” so important? Couldn’t they just have left well enough alone at 5?