12 Tax Moves That You Should Make Now

FILE YOUR 2018 TAX RETURN

Well, technically you canmake this move too soon. The IRS recently announced that 2018’s filing seasonwill start on January 29, so it’s possible that filing season will not yet havestarted by the time you’re reading this.

Having said that, it’s a smart idea to file your tax returnas soon after the start of filing season as possible. Not only will this allowyou to get your tax refund as soon as possible, but it can also help preventyou from becoming a fraud victim. The IRS only accepts one return per taxpayer,so the sooner you file, the tougher it is for a criminal to file a false returnin your name.

DONATE TO CHARITY

You may suspect that charities get the bulk of theirdonations toward the end of the year, and you’d be right. In fact, one-fifth ofcharitabledonations are made within the last 48 hours of the year alone, and manymore are made in the preceding weeks, especially around the Christmas holiday.

However, this also means that many charitable organizationssee their cash flows dry up in the middle of the year. Instead of donating alump sum of money to your favorite charities, consider splitting your donationsinto quarterly, or even monthly donations. This helps out your charities whenthey need it most, and also can ease the burden on you that comes with donatinga large amount of money at one time.

HARVEST YOUR TAX LOSSES

Tax-lossharvesting refers to the selling of losing investments in order to reduceyour taxable income. This is generally considered to be a year-end strategy,but if you want to sell a losing stock now and put your money to workelsewhere, go for it. Even if you don’t end up with any capital gains for theyear, you can use losses to reduce your taxable income by as much as $3,000, sothis can be a lucrative move.