Save Taxes in Phoenix with year end planning Part II

My office is in a strip mall, next to Albertson’s shopping center.  I had a lunch date with my baby girl who is in Kindergarten, so I popped in real quick to pick up a salad.  The place was packed!  People were shopping for the big meal – there were flowers, deserts, and the feel of the holidays in the air.  (Sure didn’t feel like a recsesion – money was moving!)  That feel always makes me appreicate how good i’ve got it, so Albertson’s got a $5 donation for their charity and the salvation army got a few bucks as well.  Just a few of my deductions for my 2008 taxes.

It’s the time of year, when most of the charitable contribitions are made.  Christmas Angels, Season of giving through the Arizona Republic, West Side Food Bank, Saint Mary’s, Salvation army – hey it’s the season of giving.  So what’s this got to do with taxes?  Well charity is a BIG tax planning startegy .  Of course the IRS doesn’t really understand the season of giving, and they have been taking away in this area recently.  To audit proof those deductions, any gift under $250, must be documented by bank records or a receipt from the charity.  I got Alberson’s covered, becasue it went through my debit card, but I missed getting the recept for the salvation army….

I have provided a handy dandy chart that explains ALL the requirements for audit proffing your charitable contributions (there are 40 different sets of rules!), with my dvd/cd. This is just a small part (like 1 second out of an hour) of tax planning in arizona.

Whatever you do, make sure you take a moment to give thanks for what you’ve got.  If you’re reading this, your warm, with electricity, clean drinking water and bathrooms that REMOVE waste.  Small things we all take for granted, but HUGE things for most of the world. 

 

 

!  Anyway

Save taxes in Phoenix with year end accounting Part I

It amazes me how many Arizonians are not familiar with some of the tweaks Arizona has in it’s tax law! One of the most basic examples is also one of the most missed.  In Arizona car tags (yes, the amount you give to Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) annually or every other year) is considered property taxes.  So a good portion of that payment is a tax deduction.  Make sure your write down the amount, or bring your regestration form in when you see your tax professional.

If your tax ‘professional’ looks at you like your from Mars – it’s time for another tax guy.  This little trick could save you a couple of hundred bucks on your 2008 income tax return.  It is also one of the hundreds of tax savings tips that I presented on the DVD I just created.

The Tax Master’s Office Hours Start Now

Do you have any interest in finding all the legal and moral tax deductions you can find?

If so, you’ve found the right place.

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Alex Lowy, CPA (Certified Public Accountant), MTAX (Masters in Tax). But just because I have all those titles and alphabet soup after my name, don’t let that lead you to believe that people ignore me at parties or that I have nothing interesting to say. That couldn’t be further from the truth!

My clients actually like me. And not just because I’m very skilled at saving them tons and tons of money they overpay in taxes. I’m all for paying my fair share, but when you don’t understand the tax law, you tend to under-utilize legal and moral tax deductions available to you.  That’s where I come in.

I will be sharing tax savings information in this blog, but if you can’t wait until I get more content here I wanted to give you a couple resources.  My main website is here: Lowy’s Tax Planning And Accounting.  I have also recently released a DVD of my 2008 tax planning strategy seminar.  It’s guaranteed to save you $1001 on your 2008 taxes, and comes with all sorts of goodies to go along with it.

Anyway, more on that later.  Please feel free to comment and add me to the “blogs you watch” list.  It’s a sure way to find some more money in your wallet at the end of the day…

Alex aka The Tax Master