I recently stumbled across www.paycheckcity.com, a nifty little site that lets you calculate your paycheck. It's good if you're trying to figure out what your take-home pay would be if your pay increased or declined. You can fill in state, city and local taxes, payroll deductions, etc... and it does the calculations for you. Just figured I would pass it along. Again: this is not a paid post, just something I've used!
For some reason I've never taken this deduction, allthough I've moved around a few times for school within the past few years. However, I have just gotten started on my 2006 tax return and I noticed that there was a "moving expenses" deduction. My wife moved from out of state to marry me and take a new job in NYC this year, and I'm going to be sure to deduct some of the related expenses (we're filing jointly).
Her previous home is a few hundred miles away from here, and she took two trips that I would call "moving-related," one to specifically take a weekend apartment hunting with me, and another to move most of her stuff via her car. I am going to deduct mileage and tolls for these trips.
It ends up being a small deduction, but I think I'm already taxed at a ridiculously high rate, so I'm going to keep as much of my hard-earned money as i possibly can.
There are many sites on the internet that list "deductable" moving expenses, but I've found that many of these stretch the rules (for example, the IRS says that the cost of meals during a move is not deductable but some sites say that it is). Your best bet is to thoroughly read the most recent IRS publication 521 and keep good records during your move. I am not a believer in risky tax strategies, especially for the $100 or so of income my moving expense deduction is going to end up being.
You heard me right, MoneyMan hasn't even attempted to do his taxes yet. But, as some of you may have heard, and as some of you procrastinators may be happy to hear, there is a reason to wait to file your taxes later this year.
The gist of the story is that many brokerage firms have been requesting filing extensions and plan to be sending out restated 1099 forms due to some late changes in the tax laws last year. This would require you to refile your taxes if you used any information in the original forms they sent out.
So if you haven't opened your W-2 envelope, pulled out your calculator, sharpened your pencil, bought your tax software, or done any of the other fun things associated with tax season, breathe easy.
I'm not looking forward to my taxes this year. I always prefer to do them myself because they help me to understand how the decisions I make during the year impact my tax bill, and they help me to plan some tax strategies for the following year.
One example of this is when I noticed last year on my state and city tax forms that I could deduct any interest I received on US Government securities, such as treasury bonds. I told myself I would have some income to put on that line this year (as long as the rates made sense), and as a result I started putting more of my savings into Treasury bills, which have actually been yielding more than my ING Direct savings account this year, in addition to having the favorable tax status.
So anyway, I recommend doing your taxes yourself, but I also recommend that you wait until the middle/end of March if you will be reporting any 1099 income that might be in danger of a restatement.
