Financial Planner

Checklist: Tax Deadline

Things to do this weekend with your money.

Three important tax-related deadlines are approaching.

* March 31 is typically the deadline for submitting year 2000 expenses to your flexible-spending plan (also known as tax-saver plans). These plans allow you to use pretax money to pay child care or unreimbursed medical expenses incurred in 2000, but you lose whatever money is not claimed by the plan’s annual deadline.

* April 10 is the deadline for the second half of homeowners’ property tax payments in most California counties.

* April 16 is the deadline for state and federal income tax returns. If you need more time, you may get an automatic four-month federal extension and a six-month state extension by filing IRS Form 4868. The extension does not give you more time to pay your tax bill; you still must estimate how much you owe and pay that amount by the April 16 deadline. For more information on taxes, visit www.latimes.com/taxes.