It is April 15th, and taxes are due!

If you are a business owner, your taxes may have already been due for a while.  A month, to be exact.  But for individuals in the US, your taxes are due April 15th, and everyone has to pay income taxes unless you are a dependent or meet certain low-income criteria.

The first thing to do is make sure you are up to date with any new changes in tax legislation.  For example, at one point in time, you could only take charitable donations if you itemized.  In another section of your file, you could take up $300 of charitable donations and still get your deduction.  However, that is no longer the case!  Most individuals no longer even do itemized deductions.  You should also keep track of changes in your life that may result in changes to your taxes, even when the laws stay the same.  Now that I am older, I get a higher itemized deduction.  You would think that deduction would go down since I spend less money, but no, some demographics, like older folks and people who are blind get higher deductions.

My advice to people about taxes is that if you want to do something like donate to a charity or increase the value of your home, do it because you want to do it, not because you want a deduction on your taxes.  If you want to give to a charity because you believe in the cause, go for it!  But don’t just donate for tax purposes.  If you want to put in a swimming pool because you want to swim, go for it!  But don’t do it expecting that it will increase your property values.  Putting in a swimming pool actually decreases the value of your property when you take into account the expenses of building and maintaining it, as well as the cost of insurance.

Finally – pay your taxes.  It’s perfectly fine to file for an extension if you need to, but make sure that you pay into it!  The important thing is that you file.  Don’t try to take on the IRS – if they caught Al Capone, they can catch you too.  So make sure that you get them in today!