Did You Know 2007 Tax Season Starts Today?

Did it hurt to do your taxes this year? Was it painful to write that check? Was it a hassle to wade through a sea of receipts? Aren’t you glad its over until next year? Well it’s not!

Taxes Year Round
Although we only have to file once a year, we’re paying taxes almost every day of our life. The Tax Foundation actually calculates how many days the average person in the US spends working for the first few months of the year just to pay their taxes. This year Tax Freedom Day is on April 30th. Can you believe if you spent every dollar you earned on paying taxes it would take from January 1^st – April 30th to pay the off in 2007? So contrary to the title of this post, the 2007 tax season doesn’t start today, it began on January 1^st.

Tax Education
As I dropped my return in the mail last night I heard a man comment, “thank goodness I’m done with taxes for another year.” I used to feel the same way. I didn’t know much about the tax law, I just paid whatever TurboTax said I owed every April.

Over the last year I’ve learned that if you know the tax rules there are many things you can do throughout the year to help ease and manage your tax burden. Unfortunately the tax code is immense and overwhelming. It’s so complicated that companies and individuals pay tax lawyers and accountants big bucks to help them decipher how it best applies to them. Despite this complexity, I’ve decided to take on the task of learning more about the tax rules.

Lower Your Taxes
A common saying states that “knowledge is power”. In the case of taxes, understanding the tax rules can give you the power to reduce the taxes you owe. Tax expert Sandy Botkin phrases it well when he says, “The more you know, the less you owe!”.

I’ve started listening to Sandy’s audio series Tax Strategies for Business Professionals on the drive to and from work and as I pickup tax tidbits I’ll share them with you here. It’s a long term project; it will take me at least a year to see the benefits of what I learn. However, many of the things I learn one year should carry over to following years so using the title of Sandy’s book; eventually I’ll be able to lower my taxes big time!

Ben Edwards, the founder of Money Smart Life, saved up enough to buy a Nintendo back when he was 12 years old. When he used the money to buy shares of Wal-Mart stock instead, he knew he wasn't like the other kids... His addiction to personal finance has paid off for his family and now he's helping you to afford the life that you want. Check him out on the web at Google Plus, Twitter and Facebook.

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