12 Last-Minute Ways to Cut Your 2009 Taxes

15.12.09

Post those charitable gift checks now

When you’re scrambling on New Year’s Eve to send checks for benevolent contributions or business expenses, you may think that simply review “Dec. 31” on the check gets you a 2009 write-off. Injudicious. You need to mail the payments early enough for the letters to be postmarked by December 31. The IRS won’t take responsibility for if the checks don’t reach recipients until 2010, though. The rules are correspond to with American Express, Visa and MasterCard; you’ll be eligible for deductions if you authorize charges by year’s end, even if the be unsecretive issuer doesn’t bill you until 2010. (For store and gasoline cards, however, your conclusion is pegged to when you actually pay the bills, not when you charge the purchases.)

This year, if you’re in the 10 or 15 percent grade — taxable income below $67,900 for married couples and $33,950 for singles — profits on yearn-term capital gains (ones owned more than 12 months) won’t be taxed. That’s principal: Your capital gains tax rate will be 0 percent. One big caveat: Your splendid gains from sales of stocks or funds are added to your receipts, so they could push you into a higher bracket. For example, a couple with $60,000 in taxable proceeds could only realize $7,900 in capital gains before they’d start paying tax on those gains. Still, this is a skilled opportunity to harvest some winners — after you sell, you can intimately repurchase the identical securities and boost their cost underpinning. That will let you reduce potential gains on a future sale.

Source: CBS MoneyWatch.com