It's that time of year again--tax time! Whether you have someone do your taxes for you or you do them yourself, don't be in such a hurry to get them done that you forget important tax deductions that you can take. Here are 5 tax write-offs that are often overlooked:
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Political Contributions: You can write these off if you contributed to a non-profit that collects funds for whatever political affiliation that you gave money to. Since 2012 was a Presidential Election, many people gave money to support the party of their choice. Make sure that you kept those receipts (and have some sort of proof that you donated).
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Health Expenses: Everything from health insurance premiums to the medicine that you bought last year is tax deductible (when it exceeds more than 7.5% of your adjusted gross income). If you are independently employed but not covered by a employer covered plan, then in many instances you can deduct 100% of your health-related costs.
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Educator Costs: If you are an educator you can write off up to $250 of the money that you spent on your classroom this year!
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Tax Preparation Fees: You can deduct all the fees that you paid to get your taxes done the previous year whether you visited a tax preparer, did them online, or bought software to prepare your taxes.
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Student Loan Interest: You are able to deduct as much as $2500 in education loan interest annually, even if you’re still in school AND even if you are JUST a co-signer on the loan. When the loan is FOR you, the internal revenue service sees you as the one who has to pay off the student loan and therefore YOU can take the deduction.
To get your taxes done FREE online (and get the maximum amount of deductions/credit); check out H&R Block this tax season.
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