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6 Filing Tips
For Your
2010 Tax Deadline
 Well
there are just a few weeks to go and like every tax season
there are always a range of topics that come up multiple
times.
To begin with there was the compromise by the President and
Congress in late December that extended the tax cuts from the
Bush administration. This gave us all some certainty to
plan for through 2012. It also setups a showdown for the
next presidential election cycle that will define the future
of taxation.
Here are a few other topics to be aware of in filing your
2010 taxes:
 Energy
Credits - Making certain improvements that promote energy
efficiency to your personal residence during 2010 can be used
to claim a credit of 30% of costs up to a maximum of$1500.
Some of the improvements include furnaces, insulation,
windows, and doors. Remember this is on your home not
rental property.
For rentals you can still deduct
the improvements or depreciate them, there just are not any
tax credits like there are with the home improvements.
Unfortunately this credit is not available in 2011.
 Education
Credits - Yes there are still Education credits to be
claimed by taxpayers and their dependents for tuition, fees,
and in some cases books. Once again it is a credit and be
aware to claim it on your return you need to claim the student
as a dependent.
Just make sure the dependent
didn’t file his or her return claiming themselves even
though they made only $2,000 on a part-time job. It is better
for the dependent to amend their return and for the parents to
claim the dependent and take the education credit.
 Sales
Tax - Every year I get questions about if my client is
itemizing can they still deduct the sales taxes paid in 2010.
The answer is yes and part of the confusion is that this
deduction is usually in flux as to whether it will be around.
Just a quick recap the IRS allows you to deduct sales tax paid
in 2010 by saving your receipts.
A lot of my clients don’t want
to do that so we use the IRS table provided that calculates a
deduction based on income, location, and number of dependents.
It also allows taxpayers to claim additional deduction for
sales tax paid on major purchases such as cars, boats, RVs,
and major home improvements.
To read the other 3 Tax Tips,
click here to see entire article on my web site or
click here to download the article PDF.
To read other past articles on our web
site click here or go to
www.PettisRumseyCPA.com and click on the Articles link.
As always you can call our offices if you have any
questions about these or any other accounting related issues, at 360-659-8502.
Regards, David Rumsey, CPA |
