Finance tips
Tax Savings & Tips from Financial Expert Alexandra Lebenthal
Tax Season is here. Get some deals to help you save.
The Recessionista team hates doing our taxes! I sense we are not alone. But we need our refund desperately, so we are all about doing our tax filing in the most economical way possible. To do that, we’re using some online tools we have found to help us and some free tools too. If you need professional help, check out H&R Block. For a limited time H&R block is offering free Tax Filing, or save 15% on premium versions of their tax packages at H&R Block Online. The deals are valid until 4/15/2014. Other deals on financial planning software include Intuit and Mint.
Alexandra Lebenthal. President and CEO, Lebenthal Holdings.
To get some tips on preparing taxes and finance planning, I turned to Alexandra Lebenthal, President and CEO, Lebenthal Holdings.
“It’s never too early to start preparing for taxes. At the beginning of each year set up a file called taxes 2014 and put all your receipts, charitable donation letters and other tax information in it, ” says financial expert Alexandra Lebenthal of Lebenthal Holdings. “That way you have everything available when you start to prepare your taxes for next year you’ll be ready to go. Once your taxes return has been filed put a copy of the return in the file as well.”
I asked Ms. Lebenthal about tax preparation. Should you prepare your own taxes? “It depends on how complicated your financial life is and how organized you are,” notes Ms. Lebenthal. ” If you do decide to go it on your own there are plenty of programs and even apps available to assist you.”
“One thing a Recessionista should do every year is look at her tax deferred planning- ie IRAs and 401ks. For IRA’s the annual contribution is $5,500. Depending on your income level, the contribution may reduce your taxable income. The 401k maximum is $17,500,” explains Ms. Lebenthal. ” The good news is that these come out of your salary, so it’s forced savings. The deductions also reduce your taxable income. Try and contribute the maximum each year. A 29 year old who contributes that amount every year until retirement will see the value of that grow to $876,356! For comparison sake, contributing only $2,500 will equal $398,344 at retirement.”
If you’re looking for some tech tools to help you get organized, check out free finance management tool Mint from Intuit. Mint is an online tool that you can enter you credit cards and finance accounts into to help track your expenses, interest rates and credit card fees. Mint can also help you with taxes. TurboTax users can pull in select 1099 details from Mint – saving the user from having to enter this information manually. Mint is sponsored by financial products (you’ll see a special offers tab in Mint) so that is how it remains free to the user. Check the security information on Mint before you import your financial information to make sure their program fits your needs. According to Holly Perez of Intuit, “Mint uses the same 128-bit encryption and physical security that banks use. Our practices are monitored and verified by TRUSTe and VeriSign.”
Another tool that can help you get organized is Quickbooks. Intuit is offering a free 30 day trial of Quickbooks Online, the #1 solution for small businesses to track sales and expenses, accept payments, scan receipts, and be ready for tax time. This is a great help if you’re trying to organize your paperwork to do a tax filing.
If you prefer hard-copy to online tax tools, check out the J.K Lasser’s Tax Planning Guides at your local bookstore and at Amazon.
Have you started your taxes yet readers? I am just about to….there’s still 10 days to file or request an extension to file with the IRS.
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