I TOOK THE HEADER PHOTO OF CRATER LAKE IN OREGON

January 2020 is the best time to begin your budget and than faithfully keep it up each month as you go through the year. Have a plan on how you are going to control your spending. It could be using one particular credit card only for groceries and gasoline which are necessities and another credit card for the other bills incurred. Then analyse the monthly statements from each of the cards and post the charges to the appropriate columns in your monthly budget. It is a good idea to ask your credit card company to email or text you each time there is a charge to your credit cards. I had to have my main credit card replaced twice in 2019 when someone else charged amounts on my card, two were in a foreign country.

Also start getting your backup ready for your 2019 tax return. I know it may be the end of January before you receive all of your W-2 forms and 1099 forms, but it is not to early to estimate what your income was from each source for 2019. I go the first thing in January and purchase the version of Turbotax that I need for that year and install it on my computer. Then I enter the estimated amounts from each of my income sources and get an idea of what my taxes are going to be. If you have used Turbotax the previous year you can elect to have all of the information from the previous year’s return transferred to the current year return for comparative purposes. That way your names, tax id information, previous years income sources along with the addresses of the employer, are visible and you do not need to enter them.

There are at least four or five different versions of Turbotax. If you just have W-2 and 1099 income , you will only need the Turbotax Deluxe version. If you have a business or even a home business, stock transactions, or interest income, you would need Turbotax Home and Business. I checked the internet for prices, Intuit(The parent company of Turbotax) is high if you were to order it on line and you would need to order the State Income tax version separately. If you go to Officemax or Office Depot, they are offering $10 off on Turbotax Deluxe and it costs $50 plus tax and that includes Turbotax for one State. Turbotax Home and Business, Turbotax Partnership, and Turbotax Corporate, each have higher prices. Officemax this week had lower prices than Walmart or Costco for some of the Turbotax products.

If you find that you will be getting a refund , it is good to file early. As the tax season progresses, the refunds usually get slower. Do not pay a tax preparation firm for a loan to get your money faster. If you figure the interest rate they are charging for basicly loaning you the money and then collecting it when the refund comes, it can be more than a 100% annualized interest rate. Usually you will receive your refund within three weeks if you file in February and March. If you file in April it will probably take longer.

If you are getting a large refund and find that you are short of money every month, maybe you need to check with your Human Resources Department and get a form to adjust the withholding so you can have more take home pay and a smaller refund for the tax year.

If you find that you have to pay taxes , then most people wait until near April 15th to pay their taxes unless you are incurring a penalty and interest for underpayment of income taxes. If you are subject to a penalty and interest for underpayment, then it is a good idea to pay your taxes as soon as possible and determine if for the year 2020 you need to pay tax estimates each quarter as the income is earned to avoid the penalty and interest on next years return.

January is a busy month for the family budget and winding up the previous year , “Get her done.” and you will not have to worry long term how to pay your bills and taxes.

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