taxes
Salary sacrifice for laptops axed
5:38AM Sarah Stokely | One not-so-great outcome of the Federal budget this week was that the fringe benefit exemptions have been tightened on laptops. So the practise of salary sacrificing to get a laptop is on its way out, unless you use it “primarily for work”. If you were thinking of rushing one through before June 30, apparently that’s not an option either – the changes have already taken effect. Thanks, Mary, for that tip. More » 
Buy Yourself Six Months to Get Taxes Done
7:00AM Gina Trapani | Happy tax day, Americans! (Ugh.) If you haven’t prepared your income tax return, all is not lost—you can file this form to get a six month extension, and take care of it when more accountants are less booked. See also what happened when we pit a human accountant versus TurboTax on our very own return. More »
Battle of the Human Accountant Versus TurboTax.com
12:00AM Gina Trapani | It’s that dreaded time of the year again, when that teetering pile of W-2 and 1099 forms haunt your dreams, and the perennial question gnaws at you: “Should I do my taxes myself, or hire an accountant?” A poll here on Lifehacker last month shows that most of you complete your income tax returns using software like TurboTax. In the past few years, I’ve gone back and forth between using an expensive human accountant and TurboTax.com to file my tax return. This year I decided to do both and see which solution saved me the most money and heartache. Read on to see who comes out victorious in the battle of the human tax accountant versus TurboTax.com. More »
Create a DIY “Ultimate Protection Portfolio”
1:20AM Kevin Purdy | Inspired by a relative’s spending of nearly $70 on Suze Orman’s “Ultimate Protection Porftfolio,” J.D. at the Get Rich Slowly blog compiled a lower-cost DIY version that accomplishes the same goal: serving as a base-level, must-do box to ensure financial health and long-term security. Among the items he suggests keeping inside: A standard expanding/accordian file Will and trust forms/primers Emergency information sheets, such as those available free on the net. More »How Do You Track Your Tax Paperwork?
4:00AM Gina Trapani | Finance blogger Nickel tracks receipts and other scraps of tax-related paperwork throughout the year in two places: a basket at home, and an envelope in the car. Any time a business or medical expense comes up, in the basket or envelope the receipt goes. Same goes for charitable contributions. Every once in a while, Nickel transfers the contents of the envelope on-the-go to the basket. (Once that’s done, you can easily digitise that paperwork with the right scanner.) How do you capture receipts and other tax documents as you go? Let us know in the comments. Keeping Track of Your Tax Paperwork [I Will Teach You To Be Rich] More »
Scan Paperwork to PDF in One Step
4:00AM Gina Trapani | Even if you do all your banking online, there’s still one ugly time of year when you’ve got to deal with a pile of financial paperwork, and that’s tax time. If your accountant accepts forms via email, or you just want to save tax documents on your computer, you want a quick and easy way to do it. While most scanner workflows require several steps to digitise documents, the Fujitsu ScanSnap transforms paper into PDF with a single button press. No one wants to spend more time than they have to on receipts, 1099’s and W-2’s. Let’s take a look at how to instantly capture tax-related and other important paperwork to your hard drive on April 15th and throughout the year with the ScanSnap. More »
How Do You Do Your Taxes?
2:00PM Adam Pash | Nobody likes doing their taxes, primarily because 1) it takes time and 2) it involves money—and in the worst cases, owing significant chunks of it. Between online tax forms, software apps like Turbo Tax, chop shops like H&R Block, and your accountant, there are tonnes of ways you can go about tackling your taxes as income tax season quickly descends on us. So, in the face of this wealth of options, we’re wondering: More »This Filing Season’s Changes Explained
3:10AM Kevin Purdy | US-centric: TheJobBored blog posts a decent summary of the major changes to the U.S. tax code that may create new deductions and adjustments for you this year—or take some away. The post also links to an L.A. Times article it draws from, but which you may or may not be able to get to through a subscription firewall. Here are three items for which 2007 is the last year you can file for, so keep them in mind as you gather your receipts for the deadline—now less than two months away. More »
Calculate Your 2008 Tax Rebate
7:00AM Gina Trapani | US-centric: Thanks to the economic stimulus package President Bush just signed into law, eligible U.S. taxpayers will receive a tax rebate—and the Consumerism Commentary blog put together a handy calculator to figure out exactly how much. Plug your income and other tax info from your 2007 return into the calculator and get back the rebate amount (if you qualify). Apparently this rebate doesn’t affect your 2007 taxes; instead you’ll get it this coming summer 2008. Economic Stimulus Tax Rebate Calculator [Consumerism Commentary via Get Rich Slowly] More »
