Tax Basics

February 10, 2002

BASIC TAX ISSUES

The Right Preparer Can Ease the Pain

One of the most difficult decisions taxpayers must make each year is not whether to itemize or file electronically. It's deciding who will prepare their returns in the first place.

TAXES

How to Choose a Tax Preparer

OK. So you've decided to skip the sharp pencil routine this year and let someone else prepare your taxes. Who should it be? Aunt Millie? A CPA? Or do you need a lawyer to do it?

TAXES

Getting Your Records Together

They should be filed neatly in your filing cabinet under "Taxes" but they're not. They're in your check file, your investment file, your loan files. Some are in a shoebox. You're like most people, and filing taxes is a once-a-year thing.

TAXES

How to Do Your Own Return

So you've decided to prepare your own return. Good for you! Many bright and talented people don't have the stomach for it. Stomach is all it takes. If you go step by step, it really isn't that hard. And the IRS actually gives pretty good instructions with its forms.

TAXES

Income You Don't Have to Report

Most of the talk at tax time centers on what you have to report. Here are 25 types of income you don't have to report. Use it as a checklist to help save taxes. Many of these items don't just happen passively. You have to take steps to make them happen. (Figures are for 2000; Some may change for 2001.)

TAXES

20 Frequently Overlooked Tax Savings

Certain deductions, credits and tax "elections" are frequently overlooked, costing you many dollars in extra taxes. Here are 20 common ones. (A tax election is a choice you make on your return that affects the amount of taxes you will have to pay. Your choice of filing status is one example.)

A Primer on Real Estate Tax Breaks

One of the benefits of investing in real estate is tax savings. Property can be a great way to shelter income from the taxman.