Simple Tax Tips for Your Personal Taxes

Use Your Home as a Tax-Saving Tool
You can deduct interest on up to a combined total of $1 million of mortgage debt incurred to purchase, build or improve your principal residence and a second residence. And you can deduct points related to a loan for purchasing or improving your principal residence. Also keep in mind these deductions and exclusions, including: property tax deduction, home equity debt interest deduction, rental income exclusion, and home sale gain exclusion.

Save For, and With, Education Expenses
Whether you're saving for your children's (or grandchildren's) education, paying higher education expenses for them or yourself, or even paying off student loan debt, you may be eligible for the following tax breaks: 529 Plans, ESAs, and Education Credits. Your tax advisor can help you select the most advantageous credit mix, depending on the amount of tuition paid and the number of students in your family. Student loan interest deduction. If you're paying off student loans, you may be able to deduct up to $2,500 of interest.

Give to Charity to Save More on Taxes
Donations to qualified charities are generally fully tax deductible. For large donations, discuss with your tax advisor both the types of assets to give and the best ways to give them. Charity assets include appreciated assets and CRTs.

Time Investing Gains and Losses
While time, not timing, is generally the key to long-terminvestment success, timing can have a dramatic impact on the tax consequences of your investment activities. The 15% long-term capital gains rate is 20 percentage points lower than the highest regular income tax rate of 35%--and it generally applies to investments held for more than 12 months. Don't let tax reasons hold you back from selling at a loss. If you're ready to divest your portfolio of a poorly performing security but don't have enough gains to absorb the loss you'll realize, remember that capital gains distributions from mutual funds can also be offset with losses. If you end up with a net capital loss, you can claim up to $3,000 of the loss against ordinary income this year and carry forward any excess to future years.

Save Tax-Deferred First
Because of the tax advantages, contributing to an employer-sponsored retirement plan, such as a 401(k), 403(b), 457, SIMPLE or SARSEP, is usually the best first step in retirement planning:
Contributions are generally pretax, so they reduce your taxable income. Plan assets can grow tax-deferred-- meaning that you pay no income tax until you take distributions. Your employer may match some or all of your contributions--also on a pretax basis. At minimum, contribute the amount necessary to get the maximum employer match.

You can make 2008 IRA contributions as late as April 15, 2009. Please visit the Doeren Mayhew website for more information.

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