Cajucom Accounting

Buy a house in 2011. While the first-time homebuyer credit is no longer available, owning a home still offers many good tax breaks. Property taxes and points paid to get a lower home loan interest rate are deductible, as is interest on home equity loans up to $100,000.

Have you had a positive experience with a professional tax preparer or accountant? Share your story and tell us why you would recommend that others hire a tax professional for all their tax needs.

If you are starting your first business, consider running your business as a sole proprietorship, which is the simplest business entity. A sole proprietorship does not require special communication or filings to the Internal Revenue Service until you start paying employees.

Plan your tax-deductible expenditures early in the tax year to take advantage of itemizing expenses. Also known as creating a bunching strategy, deduction-savvy taxpayers move, or bunch, expenditures into one tax year so they can clear deduction hurdles.

If you receive a letter or notice from the IRS, it will explain the reason for the correspondence and provide instructions. Be sure to notify your tax preparer of any letter or notice that you receive from the IRS.

The current Tax Code in the United States is over 7 million words long. By comparison, the Gettysburg Address is 269 words, the Declaration of Independence is 1,337 words, and the Holy Bible is a mere 773,000 words.

If you had tremendous medical costs, you could get a tax savings if you have enough medical costs to deduct. To claim medical expenses as itemized deductions, you must have incurred medical costs of more than 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income.

If you realize that you need to change your withholding, it's easy. Just give your payroll office a new W-4 and make sure that your form will get your withholding as close as possible to your eventual tax liability. A tax professional can help you determine your withholding.

They say you should never take spiritual, medical, or financial advice from an unqualified source. What's the worst accounting advice you ever received from someone who didn't know better?

Itemized deductions may include medical expenses, state and local taxes, real estate taxes, mortgage interest, investment fees and expenses, charitable donations, job-related expenses, union dues, home office expenses, and gambling losses.

The best way to avoid tax problems is to hire a professional tax preparer or accountant to complete your return. Doing so may even save you more money in taxes than you will pay for the service.

Did you know that you can file a tax extension? Your tax preparer should help you file a tax extension, so you have more time to prepare your taxes, if needed. Have you filed a tax extension before? If so, what was your experience?

Want to know if your business is losing or making money? Talk with your CPA, bookkeeper, or consultant on a regular basis. Your financial guru should be able to provide a quarterly breakdown of your company's finances, highlighting which areas are weak and which are strong. A reliable financial advisor will also provide advice and help you devise an action plan for future success.