Moving Forward...

Erratum:  Hello, just wanted to correct an error I noted in the post.  Below I referred to a 1098-T form, that is actual the Tuition Statement form.  The Student Loan Interest form is a 1098-E. 


Happy New Year to you.....   So hopefully you had a grand old time during the holidays, had fun with family and friends.  Ate all the holiday favorites and resigned yourself to taking the weight off in January... well January is here, and while you work on your weight loss or any other promise, take a few minutes to start pulling your tax input documents together to ensure that you leave no tax dollars on the table.  Here are a few that folks often either forget,
or figure that the amounts are negligible.   The pennies add up.


Medical Expenses: Pick up the phone right now and call your pharmacist and ask them to pull a list of the medications and costs that you incurred last year.  If you use more than one pharmacy, make the rounds.  You'd be surprised how those numbers add up, and you'd be surprised how many of those expenses you forgot you incurred. 


While you are at it, contact all your medical institutions, your hospital, your physician, your lab and also ask them for a list of all your paid medical expenses for 2014.  Most will provide this list for you without charge.  If you don't want to pay a charge, make sure you ask if they will charge you for this report before they pull it.  In many cases you can go online and pull that information down yourself.  Of course you should have copies of all the expenses you incurred, but of course you have to find all those documents first...  It unlikely that you'd forget that you had a major surgery, or that you had to pay for medical equipment for several months, but I have seen people who completely forgot about quite a large expense until they were asked directly. 


Remember, even if your medical incident occurred in a prior year, e.g. 2011 or 2013, if you paid for it in 2014, and its a qualified expense you can use that expense for the 2014 tax year. 


If you are self-employed, or an employee who pays your own health insurance premiums after taxes, your health insurance premiums could be adjustable or deductible.    Check with your advisor.


Don't forget the amounts you pay for deductibles, they often appear invisible, and finally, the mileage to all those medical facilities can add up to quite a bit.


Other Expense Documents:  In a few days many of the credit card companies will have your annual transaction reports available online for you to download.  This is a convenient way to collate your expenses.  In many cases you can download the file as an Excel spreadsheet, and so you can potentially bring multiple reports from different card companies together and avoid having to do multiple totals for various categories. 


Student Loan Interest: This is another document that folks often forget about, probably because most institutions have them online and you have to go locate it.  If you have more than one lender, remember to check all of them.   This is generally a 1098-T document. 


Let me know which documents you always forget each year.




Note: The above is for information purposes only.  Everyone's financial scenario is specific to them, so check with your tax advisor to determine how the information stated above applies to you.