May 1: Happy
May Day! This international holiday celebrating workers is a perfect time for employers of household help to review their tax responsibilities. You don't want to end up with facing
nanny tax trouble!
May 5: ¡
Feliz Cinco de Mayo!
Take time on this fifth day of the fifth month to get your tax material in order. You need a
tax record keeping system for your 2012 taxes, as well a filing system for your 2011 return material in case the Internal Revenue Service has questions.
May 8: Those tax records you just organized will let you know whether you need to
adjust your withholding. It's a good move, whether you owed the IRS a lot or got a big refund.
May 10: Does your job include
tips? If so and you received $20 in tips in April, use
Form 4070 to report them today to your employer.
May 13: Happy Mother's Day! Make sure today is a special one for your mom. And if you're a mother, or about to be, be sure to check out the
tax joys of parenthood.
May 16: With the arrival of warmer spring weather come home improvement projects, such as the planting of May flowers and
bird-friendly plants.
Such home work will help
increase your basis in the property and that could help reduce any potential
home sale tax bill.
Advanced home energy home upgrades also could get you dollar-for-dollar tax credit savings this tax year. These include the more costly
solar, wind energy and geothermal systems.
May 21: Set up your
bunching strategy. This method of collecting enough deductible expenses so that you can itemize works better when you get started as early as possible in the tax year.
May 26: If you're hitting the road on the Memorial Day holiday to kick off summer, be on the lookout for bargain gasoline. State and local
fuel excise taxes can really ramp up pump prices.
Regardless of how you travel, if part of your trip is business related, Uncle Sam might be willing to
pick up some of those costs when you file your tax return.
May 31: Was this the last filing season you want to go it alone at tax time? Then start searching for a tax professional now. You have more time to thoroughly investigate and
pick the perfect tax pro.
If you filed for an extension, he or she could help you finish up this 2011 tax year task. And hiring a tax pro now will definitely help you get a head start on your 2012 return.
Small Business Tax Calendar -- May: Important
filing, deposit and record keeping dates your company needs to know.
Journey,
My guess is that they just don't pay attention. They're so used to having everything done for them they just take for granted that taxes will be taken care of, too. That makes it easy for disreputable financial advisers (and I'm not saying that's the case with Nick Cage; just hypothetical here!) to take advantage of such clients. Or the advisers aren't criinal, just criminally inept, which puts their oblivious clients in tax hot water. Maybe I'm naive, but I don't think these folks go into taxes looking to cheat; they know they already get lots of attention so any questionable tax move will only get them the bad kind of PR.
Kay
Posted by: Kay @ Don't Mess With Taxes | Wednesday, August 05, 2009 at 02:22 PM
Kay,
It seems there is an unusual proportion of stars who get in tax trouble. Any thoughts as to why?
Posted by: My Journey | Tuesday, August 04, 2009 at 07:55 PM