Charities

We received a solicitation from a charity this week. Sometimes I think they share mailing lists with one another. I know if we give and they acquire our phone number, they can bypass the No Call list.

It reminded me that we are in the last 2 months of 2007. A great time to review the different items that will appear on our income tax return. These include earned income, withheld taxes, real estate taxes, mortgage interest, charitable gifts, IRA deductions, HSA (health savings) deductions or income, interest, dividends, and capital gains. Of course, tax returns contain many other variables but those are big ones for us.

So, with the trigger from a favorite charity, I ran a recap of our charitable gifts so far this year. With computers and software (I'm now using Quicken 2007), that number is only a few clicks away.

Bob and I are headed out of town for a while on a job. He does the consulting and I do the typing. It'll be a good time to review a few of the tax elements I pulled from the computer. I'll also copy last year's return (first two pages and Schedule A). It's a good place for us to have the discussion - no television.

Oh. Yes, I did take a few trips to Goodwill. I'll take a look at my lists and rough out a value of those things. From our discussion, we'll have a plan to execute by year end.

Just thought I'd share that this is a good time to review what we can do before the end of the year. Plus we can hold our breath while the government decides on a few little things like the AMT. An animal created a long time ago and expanded under Clinton that has become a trap for the not that wealthy. A trap that produces much $ that the Congress has counted on spending. Another catch 22 they have created and fed.

'til later