You may want to act quickly on one or more of these
By Ellen Stark
(Credit: Adobe Stock)
Now that Congress has passed its big tax bill, you may be wondering what you can do by December 31 to cut your 2017 tax bill. You’ll find a few timely tax-saving tips below. Although you can still fund a 2017 Individual Retirement Account or Health Savings Account until next April, New Year’s Eve is traditionally your last chance to lock in most other types of tax savings. This year, however, there’s a twist to that timing. “The tax legislation makes normal [year-end] planning even more important,” says Mark Luscombe, principal federal tax analyst for Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting.
The classic year-end advice is to accelerate next year’s deductions into the current year to get the tax breaks as soon as you can and to postpone receiving taxable income into the following year, to delay when taxes will be due on it. But “that’s an even better strategy with this tax bill,” since tax rates are poised to drop in 2018 and some tax deductions are going away, Luscombe notes.
These three moves could pay off, as long as you watch for potential pitfalls:
- Donate generously to charity.
- If your state and local income and property taxes tend to exceed $10,000, pay what you can before Dec. 31.
- Put more toward your home loan.
Click here to read the full article and find out why you should do the 3 year-end tax moves on nextavenue.org.