When considering your financial affairs a main aim is to reduce the amount you pay in taxes. There are two ways in which to do this, firstly you can reduce your income and secondly you can increase your deductions.
Reducing Income – You’ve seen the line on your tax return marked AGI (adjusted gross income). This is essentially the amount of income you pay taxes on. It’s your yearly income in total minus the adjustments you claim. The more money you make, the higher your adjusted gross income. The higher your adjusted gross income, the more money you are expected to pay in taxes. The flip side of that coin is that the less income you earn, the fewer taxes you pay. If you want to reduce your income, you can do this by contributing to your employee retirement plan. Money you funnel into your retirement fund lowers your income, which means you owe less taxes. Another way to lower your AGI is by making adjustments to your income. Adjustments in terms of taxes means things like contributions to an IRA, alimony, classroom expenses, or interest paid on a student loan. If you’re interested in a complete list, visit the IRA’s website.
Increase Your Tax Deductions – Your filing status and number of dependents determines the amount of your standard deduction as well as personal exemptions and these can be increased by such things as getting married or increasing your number of dependents. You may be a person who is able to itemize your deductions such as health care, state and local taxes, personal property taxes, mortgage interest, charitable donations, work-related expenses, fees for tax preparation and expenses related to your investments. You should compare your standard deduction and your itemized deduction and file using the higher of the two.
Along with these methods for saving on income tax, you will find there are a number of lesser known techniques. These techniques will depend upon which country you reside and when added together can really give you some serious savings. There are a number of tax credits you can use to your benefit along with investment funds, a thorough search online will enlighten you to those methods available to you in your country. However it is worth noting that these methods can be rather confusing and therefore it is advised if you want to take advantage of them you should hire somebody who specializes in tax to do it for you.
Making changes in how you pay your taxes today acting on the expert advice of a tax professional can result in dividends for the remainder of your life. While tax free income is an unattainable dream, your professional can help you pay considerably less taxes now .
Next : Tax Free Income Sydney