It’s that time of year again. Time to start planning for your tax situation for 2014. You might be saying, “Wait! I haven’t even finished my 2013 planning yet!”. If that’s the case, my best advice is to see your tax adviser right now. It’s already too late for most elections and planning to have much effect on the end result of your 2013 taxes. There are still things that can be done for the end of the year, but that’s another blog entirely. (See tomorrows article)

This time of year we see lots of clients coming in with questions about how they can lower their tax liability for next year. Your tax professional is great at handling just that situation. However, as with all in life, don’t lose sight of the bigger picture. A slightly lower tax liability in this tax year may mean a much larger one in a following tax year. Structuring your income and deductions with only one year in mind is the road to long term disaster.

Here are four examples:

In 2012 your state income tax withholding was $100 more then your allowed optional sales taxes, so you take the state withholding and get a larger itemized deductions. Did you consider that in 2013 your are probably going to have to take the Read More