That’s right, only 8 weeks left in 2013. Visions of holiday dinners and gift buying pop into our minds, but what about our taxes? Yes, I said taxes. It is not too late to make sure you have done all you can for yourself to avoid paying too much in taxes.

Have you fully funded your retirement plan? Have you used your flexible spending account? Have you paid your Property Tax? Have you made all of the charitable deduction(s) you wanted to? These are all important issues and you do not want to leave money on the tax table that can be left in your pocket.

One thing I have done with a couple of my clients is a “mock” tax return. We have gone to www.irs.gov, printed off a blank 2012 1040, applied what we know of the 2013 tax code, and processed a “mock” return. In one case, we were able to see how much could be pulled from the IRA account and not push the client into a higher tax bracket. Another client wanted to pay off their mortgage. We discovered that they could do this and not pay more in tax even though they no longer would have their mortgage interest as a deduction.

So go ahead, do the return. Confirm to yourself that you have done everything you can to lower your own tax picture, and then get to planning for your holidays. After all, there are only 8 weeks left!

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