Fourteen Tax Tips For 2007
By Terry Fitzroy
We have barely gotten over the hangover from our Christmas expenses and now the tax man is tugging at your coat tails and you feel another financial hangover in the horizon. These great tax tips for 2007 will help keep that hard earned money in your pocket.
1. File your tax returns on time to avoid penalties for being late.
2. If you are a trade's person you may be able to write off certain expenses relating to your trade. Make sure that your records are always up to date and that any connotations are in place.
3. Keep all records for a minimum of 6 years before destroying.
4. If you are self employed then you must keep complete books that comply with HMRC. If you are unsure of acceptable bookkeeping practices check with the HMRC.
5. Don't believe everything people tell you. You will hear all kinds of stories about what expenses you can deduct. Make sure you've got it right. For an expense to be deductible it must be wholly incurred exclusively for the purpose of your business. HMRC has issues a booklet called "Janet and John" which explains what records they would expect a self-employed individual to keep. It's excellent.
6. Plan ahead so that you have the cash ready for the taxes you are going to need to pay. That way you won't be stalling sending in your taxes and having to pay interest.
7. If you are self employed and work from home you can write off a room of your home if you use it to conduct business. That also means you can deduct a portion of your lighting, heating, and mortgage interest.
8. Never write off a portion of your mortgage payment for space used because this could lead to you having to pay capital gains on your principal residence when you sell it.
9. Understand what deductions are available and whether they apply to you.
10. Any time you are able to split income consider if it is advantageous to you.
11. Pay less in inheritance tax on your death. Make use of the $3,000 annual exemption or the gifts out of income exemption which lets you make regular gifts to people out of your regular earnings as long as you don't short yourself.
12. Pay less in capital gains tax. There are some interesting ways you can reduce your capital gains. In fact this is getting much too complex for this type of article. But you should be in contact with your accountant.
13. New residents don't rely on the old 90 day rule as there have been some complex changes to this and you need to calculate it correctly.
14. Share some seasonal goodwill if you are in a 40% taxpayer bracket. You can give to charities this time of year when it is so much in need after the Christmas season and reap the benefits on your taxes.
These tax tips for 2007 will help keep the taxman at bay keeping the most dollars in your pocket and giving you time to recoup your finances.
About the author
Terry Fitzroy is a professional writer and reviewer. For more information on how to file your taxes online go to http://www.taxengine.com/ from http://www.FreeArticlesAndContent.com
|
|
Copy This Article
For FREE!!!
You can use this article and copy it on your own website
for free! All you have to do is make sure the article
is copied with no changes and includes the "About
The Author" text. Also please ensure that all url's
are hyperlinked according. Thank you. |
Link To This Article - And We'll
Link Back To Your Website!
You are more then welcome to link to this article! All
you have to do is copy this webpage address from the
address bar and create a link on your website. Please
use the title of this article for your link text. Please
get in contact once you have linked to this article
and we'll link back to you! Thank you. |
|
|
|
Other great articles from this category...
|
Related Sites
|
|
