It’s now officially time to get serious about filing your 2011 Form 1040, especially if you expect a refund. Here are five little-known write-offs that could make your refund bigger or cut what you owe.
1. Medicare Insurance and Long-Term Care Premiums
You can claim a Schedule A itemized deduction for unreimbursed medical expenses, including health insurance premiums, to they extent they exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income, or AGI. (AGI is the number at the bottom of Page 1 of your Form 1040.) The 7.5%-of-AGI hurdle may seem insurmountable, but seniors can often clear it–especially if they remember to include the following in the medical expense pot:
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By DAVID ESPO | AP
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-controlled House has passed legislation sought by President Barack Obama to extend Social Security payroll tax cuts through 2012. But the bill also includes a requirement for construction of an oil pipeline that has drawn a veto threat.
The vote was 234-193.
The measure now goes to the Senate, where top Democrats strongly oppose the pipeline provision.
The legislation would also renew jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed. And it would head off a threatened 27 percent cut in fees to doctors who treat Medicare patients.
With lawmakers expected to adjourn soon for the year, the partisan showdown is the last of a remarkably quarrelsome year of divided government.
AS JOB growth has ground to a halt and stock markets have swooned, the outlook for both the American economy and Barack Obama’s presidency has dimmed. The jobs package he unveiled in a much anticipated speech before Congress on September 8th was a calculated attempt to resuscitate both. His “American Jobs Act” consists of a hefty $447 billion worth (roughly 3% of GDP) of new and renewed tax cuts and spending that, he hopes, will prevent a fiscal vice from pushing the economy into recession early next year. Its provisions were carefully chosen to stimulate job growth immediately while maximising the political price Republicans will pay to obstruct it. Read the rest of this entry »
President Barack Obama’s new jobs plan seeks to coax wary employers to invest and hire more by slicing their share of payroll taxes next year.
But while the payroll-tax cuts figure to appeal to Republican lawmakers, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor spoke favorably about the idea Thursday, the cuts face some resistance. Many Republicans and even some small-business advocates are opposed to more temporary tax breaks. Some liberal Democrats are nervous about reducing the taxes that are paid to support Social Security, even though the administration promises its plan would have no impact on the program. Read the rest of this entry »
JOBLESS RATE DECREASES TO 9.0%
Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected unemployment to stay at 9.1% in October, so this was a nice development. Still, this latest jobs report had something in common with its predecessors: underwhelming job growth. Non-farm payrolls expanded by 80,000 positions last month, but that fell short of the 95,000 new jobs envisioned in the consensus Bloomberg forecast. On the bright side, the percentage of underemployed Americans fell from 16.5% to 16.2% and the long-term unemployed (those out of work for at least 27 weeks) shrank to 42.4% of the jobless population, the lowest percentage since November 2010.1 Read the rest of this entry »
It’s not too late to make these tax-saving moves.
Before acting on our recommendations, be sure to gauge your 2012 income expectations. Moves you make this year may affect next year’s taxes, detailed in the table below.
Game the Standard Deduction
If your total annual itemized deductions are usually close to the standard deduction amount, consider the strategy of bunching together expenditures for itemized deduction items every other year, starting with this year. Read the rest of this entry »
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