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Thanks for visiting my blog. Hope you find some helpful hints for organizing your time and space. My passions are to help you make home a refuge instead of a crisis center, and to help you function in peace rather than chaos - at home or at work. I have switched my main blog to 1-2-3 ... Get Organized on WordPress, so please visit me there.



Thursday, February 24, 2011

Organizing for Taxes - Deductibles

         
 We have been on a roller coaster ride this last week. We got a call saying my husband's mom was at death's door. We scurried around and left the next day. Over the four days we were with my mother-in-law, she rallied. So we drove home in six hours of rain, sleet, snow and fog. The next day we got a call saying death was likely. My husband packed up again and called the doctor to find she had improved! It's so difficult caring from a distance! On the bright side, I worked some on my taxes during the trip, the subject of our post today ...

If you compute your deductions on your income taxes, Salvation Army's Value Guide can help you determine amounts to deduct for those physical items you've donated to non-profits. It provides a range from high to low for clothing, dry goods, furniture and other items.

In addition, TurboTax and H&R Block tax programs have built-ins that help you determine what may or may not be deductible on your taxes. 

FYI: even though I've heard experts say that you need to keep your tax returns for only 5-7 years, I'm hearing more and more that you should keep them indefinitely.

More on taxes:

Taxes - Knowing Which Papers to Keep/Toss

Organizing for Tax Season

Organizing Tax Receipts