Tax Carnival #33 - Deduction Tips, Rebates, and Tax Planning

Welcome to 33rd edition of Carnival of Taxes. First, I would like thank Kay Bell at Don't Mess With Taxes for allowing me to host this esteemed Carnival. Second, I would like thank the authors who submitted articles during the busy tax filing season and the holiday weekend. For your reading pleasure, here are the tax related submissions for this week's Carnival.

Tax Tips

Kevin presents Claiming Pizza Delivery Mileage On Your 2007 Taxes posted at Pizza Delivery Stories. Kevin's tip is also worth considering if any employer doesn't reimburse one for business use of a car. However, remember to keep written documentation of the mileage, since the IRS may request this information to validate any deductions.

Speaking of mileage, Nickel reminds us not to forget the volunteer miles driven for qualified charities in Uncommon Charitable Tax Deductions posted at fivecentnickel.com. Other tips include charitable deductions for uniforms and appreciated property.

For those who are still deciding on tax preparation software, FMF presents Review: TaxCut posted at Free Money Finance. Although it was only briefly mentioned, the Deduction Pro feature may help identify opportunities that weren't previously considered.

Tax Rebates

Phil presents The Top 6 Reasons Why the Tax Rebate Won't Stimulate the Economy posted at Phil for Humanity, sharing "the reasons why the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 and tax rebates will not stimulate the American economy out of this recession." While it may not impact the economy, Dan Meyer notes that the rebate has already stimulated a number of con artists in A Surfeit of Stimulus Scams posted at Tick Marks.

In case you're wondering when YOUR rebate will arrive, the two submissions below provide the answer. Raymond presents Economic Stimulus Payment Schedule posted at Money Blue Book showing it will be based on one's social security number. Kay Bell, at Don't Mess With Taxes, tells us the Rebate delivery schedule is announced , and advises taxpayers to "schedule your rebate shopping plans now! The IRS has announced the checks' delivery schedule."

However, Penelope Pince cautions Don't Spend that Tax Rebate Just Yet posted at Our Fourpence Worth, sharing, "a few suggestions based on an article by Liz Pulliam Weston about one of this year's popular tax topics, the very anticipated tax rebate."

Tax Planning

Getting married? Don't forget to think about one's tax situation. Diane Dean points out the options at Filing as Married on your W-4 posted at Need IRS Help?.

David Gross share how he achieved paying zero federal income tax in Money Magazine tells its readers how to pay zero taxes posted at The Picket Line. Money Magazine even featured the unconventional method he used, advising against taking the same approach due to an "ascetic lifestyle" one might need to follow.

Tax Process

Wenchypoo presents Update: The FairTax Crafter Finally Answers Me posted at Wisdom From Wenchypoo's Mental Wastebasket, which shares her displeasure with the response she received from Congressman John Linder, co-author of the The FairTax Book, on her questions about the FairTax.

Ever wonder what happens when people don't file for their refunds? Beckie provides the answer in Unclaimed Refunds posted at A Tax Consultant for All Seasons. When moving, it's also probably a good idea to send a change of address form to the IRS, if one expects a refund :-)

Finally, our tax withholding system has caused some people to focus on big refunds versus lower tax liability. Here is Why I Don't Like A Big Tax Refund posted at My Wealth Builder.

This concludes this edition of the Tax Carnival. The April 7, 2008 Tax Carnival will return to its home at Don't Mess With Taxes and submissions can be made via this blogcarnival form.

This is not financial or tax advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2008 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Carnival Highlights For The Week #13 - Self Employed Edition

In reading the Carnivals this week, I looked for articles that were related to home businesses, being self employed or earning side income. Here are my picks for the week:

The Personal Development Carnival is hosted at Live The Power.	My Carnival selection is Attitudinal Service, at Trusted Advisor Associates, which writes good customer service is intellectual. However, great customer service comes from the heart and soul.
The Carnival of Personal Finance #99 is organized by Money, Matter, and More Musings.	My Carnival choice is by Tips for Running a Successful Seasonal Business by GreatFX Business Cards. The secret is managing three areas: budget, revenue, and time.
The Investor's Blog Network (IBN) Carnival #6 is hosted by The Digerati Life.	My Festival pick is by Online Stock Trading which covers Online Stock Trading Mid-Day Trading. It provides a few tips and insights to help reduce the chart watching stress during the day,
The Carnival of Family Life #53 celebrates is one year anniversary at it's founder, An Island Life.	My Carnival choice is Family Business: Cons To Beware posted at Inklings, which gives a quick overview of home business pitfalls and ways to combat them.
The Festival of Frugality #73 is presented by Money Smart Life.	My Festival pick is Save Money While Still Dining Out at Saving for Wealth, which shares money saving gift certificates to reduce the cost of business dinners. OK, this one is a bit of a stretch for the theme:-)
The Cavalcade of Risk is hosted at Getting Green.	My Carnival choice is Managing Risk in a Home Business at Families.com, which shares that they are multiple risk in a home business, including financial, business model, hiring and time management.
The Carnival of Taxes #18 is hosted by Don't Mess With Taxes.	My Carnival choice is Estimated Taxes and Avoiding Underpayment Penalties posted at Five Cent Nickel. How to pay estimated taxes is another "learning opportunity" of being self employed.

I hope you enjoy reading these Carnivals and finding ideas you can use.

This marks the final edition of Carnival Highlights for the Week. Based on a discussions at Money, Matter, and More Musings on what readers do not like in Personal Finance blogs, I am discontinuing this segment for now. It seems many regular personal finance blog readers dislike round up articles because the readers have already seen many of the highlighted articles. My site analytics also show these articles have relatively low readership.

My apologies to those readers who have enjoyed this segment. I hope you will equally enjoy the new segments that will replace Carnival Highlights for the Week.


Check back on Saturday for the next Reflections and Musings segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2007 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Carnival Highlights For The Week #9

Here are the Carnivals from this past week that I am reading :

The Investors Blog Network (IBN) Festival #4 is organized by My Wealth Builder.	My Carnival choice is Save Time with the Stock Market Search Engine by Investors Trip. The Stock Market Search Engine (SMSE) was created because of frustration with links unrelated to the stock in Google Search. The SMSE solves this problem because the search index lists only websites that are related to the stock market. In addition, the portfolio by the Investors Blog Network for the CNBC.com Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge is shared. As of April 13, 2007, the portfolio is worth $1,058,000 and is in the top 21% of contestants. The current leader has $2,860,000.
The Tax Carnival #16 is hosted by Don't Mess With Taxes.	My Carnival pick is 7 Tips On Claiming Your Tax Deductions for Business and Charitable Contributions at The Digerati Life. For those of you still doing tax returns (like me), here are a few additional tips on deductions, especially if there is a business involved. The article reminded me that business owners get a number of deductions that employees do not. The tax breaks can help a lot when running a business.
The Festival of Frugality #69 is at The Digerati Life.	My Carnival selection is Right Turns And Other Simple Tips To Save Money And Environment by Money, Matter and More Musings, which highlights 51 saving tips from Time Magazine. An excellent tip is making right turns to go to and get back from one's destination. It can save a lot of time and gasoline over the long term. I'll be trying this tip on my errands this weekend.

I hope you enjoy reading these Carnivals and finding ideas you can use.

Check back on Saturday for the next Reflections and Musings segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2007 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Carnival Highlights For The Week #8

Here are the Carnivals from this past week that I am reading :

The Carnival of Personal Finance #94 is organized by No Credit Needed.	My Carnival choice is 10 Tips on Life and Disability Insurance: How And Why We're Getting More by Silicon Valley Blogger, which shares their current family situation (spouse starting own business and children) and how that affects their insurance thinking. I would also include determining how Disability and Survivor Income Insurance from Social Security can be used to cover part of one's insurance needs. After all, we've all paid for it already and should consider it available (until Social Security goes broke.)
The Tax Carnival #15 is hosted by Don't Mess With Taxes.	My Carnival pick is by Tax Information which offers some help with Costly Tax Mistakes and What You Can Do about Them. This is a good list. Here's what I'm doing to avoid making mistakes. Since I owe taxes, I will pay that amount and file for an extension. That will enable me to ensure that don't miss any items to claim.
The Carnival of Debt Reduction #81 is at Money Walks.	My Carnival selection is by Debt Free 4 Ever, which states it’s 70% Attitude and 30% Hard Work to get rid of debt. I like the point of the article. Getting rid of debt starts with personal commitment and needs hard work. However, getting rid of debt also requires having good (financial) knowledge, which the lack of sometimes cause a debt problem. Here's my build on the title: Getting Rid of Debt is 70% Attitude, 70% Knowledge, and 70% Hard Work. Perhaps, a topic for a future post :-)
The Festival of Stocks #30 is hosted by Investor Trip.	My Festival pick is Dell's accounting problems:the tip of the iceberg posted at Sox First, which opines that Dell is a victim of the "winner's curse" which caused them to miss learning that their business model is now obsolete. I agree. It is hard for a company to transform themselves periodically from what made them successful to what will keep them successful. That's the reason very few companies exist more than a few decades.
The Carnival of Personal Development is presented by Alex Shalman.com.	My Carnival choice is What They Don't Teach You In School posted at The Optimized Life. How to fail, continual learning, leadership, finance, and personal vision were identified self education areas that are important to personal success. I agree that schools are not designed nor responsible to teach these concepts. That's still a responsibility that I have as a parent. Another skill I would add to this list is "critical thinking."
The 68th Festival of Frugality is hosted by Mapgirl's Fiscal Challenge.	My Festival pick is Free 12-month supply of contact lens cases & coupons posted at Wise Bread - Living large on a small budget, which shares a Bausch & Lomb promotion for a free year's supply for contact lens cases. Another necessity I can get for free:-) I generally use a contact lens case for several months to a full year. Bausch & Lomb is trying to change my paradigm and will be sending me 12 cases as one year's supply. Since it's free, I'm willing to let them convince me:-)
The Festival of Under 30 Finances #20 is hosted by One Big Mortar Board.	My Festival pick is Starting Early: The Young Adult’s Guide To Personal Finance posted at Debt Consolidation News, which lists 65 elements in their guide. Many of the elements I ascribe to being a good student of finance, which I think is an important skill. Here are ones that have worked best for me: #2 - Pay yourself first, #50 - Choose a job-oriented degree and #61 - Plan for your retirement. One I didn't see and would add is: Only use debt for a home, college tuition, and perhaps one's first car.

I hope you enjoy reading these Carnivals and finding ideas you can use.

Check back on Saturday for the next Reflections and Musings segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2007 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Carnival Round Up For The Week #6

Here are the Carnivals from this past week that I am reading :

The Carnival of Personal Finance #92 is organized by Lazy Man and His Money.	My Carnival choice is Million Dollar Kids - Give me a break by My Financial Journey, which provides commentary on the Yahoo! Finance article on the costs of raising children. I was planning to comment on the Yahoo! article, which puts the high end of raising a child through 17 at $1.6 million, but hadn't done so yet. $100,000 per year to raise a child. Hmm.... we don't even spend that much for our entire family today. The parents of the million dollar children are purchasing lots of items that are not in my set of things to buy:-)
The Carnival of Taxes #14 is hosted by Don't Mess With Taxes.	My Carnival pick is by Tax Tips for eBay Sellers which asks and then answers the question, What taxes are you responsible for as an eBay seller?. The answer is sales, payroll and income taxes. Given the additional burden of tax filing work, it doesn't seem to me it's worth the effort to buy something for $10 to sell for $20 on eBay. I'm also willing to bet the majority of eBay sellers may not be complying with these tax liabilities:-)
The Carnival of Family Life #46 is at Digital Rich Daily.	My Carnival selection is Should Parents Pay For Children's Colleges? posted at Getting To Graduation, which proposes that parents should target for paying 1/2 of the costs, with paying 100% being the exception. This discussion has been going on in the blogosphere for quite a while, with many good points on both sides. Personally, I plan to pay for a 100%, and am acting against that plan. Of course, I may have to pay less that 100% when the time comes, or choose a less expensive school.
The Festival of Under 30 Finances is hosted by Money Crashers.	My Festival pick is Talking Dollars: The 100 Most Famous Quotes About Finance by Debt Consolidation News, which lists 100 quotes on personal and other types of finances. Overall, I like the list of quotes and will use some of them as introductions to future posts. One I especially liked is by Andrew Mellon, "Gentleman prefer bonds." Surely, this is a topic for a future post:-)
The Carnival of Personal Development is presented by The Carnival of Personal Development.	My Carnival choice is Our Lives Tick Off One Second At A Time posted at Enhance Life, which points out that we should appreciate every moment of our lives and the time with those we care about. Well said. My dad once said, "Funny thing about life, no one knows what's going happen tomorrow." To this point, I plan my financial security conservatively to last until my 90s and I interact positively with those close to me in the event it is the last time we see each other.

I hope you enjoy reading these Carnivals and finding ideas you can use.

Check back on Saturday for the next Reflections and Musings segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2007 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Carnival Round Up For The Week #4

Here are the Carnivals from this past week that I am reading :

The Carnival of Personal Finance #90 is hosted by Mapgirl's Fiscal Challenge	My Carnival choice is $5k Crunch presented by InsureBlog, which shares the numbers on how everyone CAN afford mandatory health insurance, no matter what their income. Given that a health catastrophe can be major wealth destroyer, I agree. I would not take risk of not being insured.
Towards Better Life #6 is hosted by Toward Better Life.	My Carnival pick is When Not to Buy a House posted at Silicon Valley Real Estate Blog, which list five reasons when one should avoid thinking about buying a house. I absolutely agree with him, especially his point about needing an "exotic mortgage."
The Carnival of Money Stories #6 is hosted by Money, Matter and More Musings.	My Carnival choice is Timeshares: Should we buy one? at It’s Just Money. A great story that illustrates my opinion about buying a timeshare - The best deal one gets is in the sales presentation - i.e. the free dinner, gift or lodging. For me, "no" is the right answer on whether to buy.
The Carnival of Taxes #13 is hosted by Gina's Tax Articles.	My Carnival pick is Money Monday: Choosing A Tax Professional Is No Longer a Coin Flip by Queercents. This article is an excellent, comprehensive and informative post on how to choose and evaluate a tax professional. I would add, "Get a referral from a financially savvy colleague or friend who has worked with a good tax professional."
The Festival of Under 30 Finances is hosted by Money $mart Life.	My Festival choice is Ouch: Experiencing Volatility posted at An English Major’s Money. Stock market investing is always fun in a rising market. In today's choppy markets, volatility and stomach wrenching drops are the norm. While I don't like it, I believe the latter situation is what one needs to expect for the next few years.

I hope you enjoy reading these Carnivals and finding tips you can use.

Check back on Saturday for the next Reflections and Musings segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2007 Achievement Catalyst, LLC