I know I ask this every year, but I've never gotten a satisfactory answer so I'm trying again: How the heck did November get here so soon?
Thanksgiving planning is obviously the major focus right now, but November 2011 brings an added special day. Nov. 23 is the deadline for the special Congressional deficit reduction committee to come up with a way to raise trillions of dollars over the next decade.
While the super committee's decisions (or lack thereof) could be crucial to our future taxes, we've also got to pay attention to our current tax situations.
And there's still plenty we can do in November to make sure our 2011 tax bill isn't too large.
A good place to start is with retirement savings. Putting a few more bucks into your workplace 401(k) will reduce your taxable income.
Don't forget about individual retirement accounts. A contribution to a traditional IRA might be deductible. Even if it isn't, the sooner you contribute, the more time your account has to grow tax deferred. And if you have a Roth IRA, that money will compound tax free.
You also should evaluate your portfolio to see which assets you can cash in on now and which bad investments you can use to offset those gains.
And don't forget about bunching your miscellaneous deductions so you'll be able to get over the 2 percent of adjusted gross income deduction hurdle.
These are just a few of the many November Tax Moves detailed over in the ol' blog's left column. Just scroll down a bit and voilà! You'll find plenty of tax-saving suggestions that you can take care of this month.
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