If  you have not gotten with your tax preparer yet to plan for the end of the year, there are some things to be done:

*Decide on final IRA, Roth IRA and 401K contributions (The IRAs don’t have to be paid by April 15, but the 401K employee deferral has to be paid by year end.)

*See if you need to ‘bunch’ itemized deductions by:

1) Make your state income tax estimate (or if you think you may owe taxes increase state tax withholding) in December for the tax deduction.

2) Pay April real estate taxes now.

3) Pay your mortgage payment at the end of December instead of the beginning of January to get the interest writeoff.

4) Make additional charitable contributions by cash or check by the end of the year (make sure you have a letter or get a receipt by the charity to substantiate the deduction.)

*In additional to cash and check charitable contributions, make sure you make any final donations of  non-cash items by the end of the year.

*If you have a business, see about buying any needed items at end of December rather than the beginning of January so you can reduce the business income.

*If you sold stock for a capital gain this year, check with your financial advisor about ‘harvesting capital losses’ to offset these potentially taxable items.

Most important, talk to your tax preparer to plan for any other items that happened this year so you aren’t surprised by taxes next year.

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