11 Little-Known Tax Deductions That Help You Save Big

Over 7,000
money-saving tips!

Follow @tiphero

Site search:

Web Search:

Tips by Category:

GIVEAWAYS SITES

Giveaways & Sweepstakes

Submit Your Own Tip!

Personal Finance

Home > Personal Finance > Topics: Taxes

11 Little-Known Tax Deductions That Help You Save Big

Submitted by: Tip Hero 02/09/2011 11:19 AM

Now that tax season is upon us, you want to make sure that you're not missing out on some new, commonly overlooked deductions. It is important to pay what you fairly owe, but by taking advantage of as many deductions as you can, you're more likely to avoid overpaying. Take a look at some of the little-known deductions, courtesy of Dolans.com:

Pleasure Trips: if you can document that you made some business contacts or did research relevant to your business while you were away on pleasure, you can enjoy some tax benefits. Just use saved hotel and meal receipts and claim them on your return.

Energy-Efficient Home Appliances: if you installed an energy-efficient heating or cooling product in 2010 (i.e. a solar hot water heater, geothermal heat pump, etc.) you can receive a tax credit of up to 30% of your cost. The best part is that there is no maximum amount on this credit.

Private Mortgage Insurance: thanks to a new law passed in 2010, you can deduct PMI payments along with your mortgage interest.

The new deduction only applies to mortgages issued after 12/31/06. Also, the full deduction is limited to homeowners making $100,000 or less. (For those earning $100,000 to $109,000, a partial deduction is allowed.)

Car Expenses for Medical Reasons: if you needed to drive somewhere to obtain medical care for you or a dependent, you can deduct 16.5 cents per mile. This is just for drives that were "primarily for, and essential to, medical care," but every little bit can help!

Commuting Costs for Part-Timers: if you work two jobs (for example, one from 9-5 and another from 6-10), you can deduct the costs of commuting (about 50 cents per mile) from one job to another since it's considered a legitimate deductible business travel expense.

To learn about more little-known tax deductions that you could benefit from, head over to Dolan.com's 11 Deductions to Save Big on Your Tax Bill.

---
sponsored: Find Free Grocery Coupons

---
Get free Tip Hero updates via Email, Facebook, or Twitter.

More Money-Saving Tips:

11 Most Overlooked Tax Deductions

5 Free Resources for Online Tax Preparation

How New Parents Can Save on Taxes

Make the "Making Work Pay Credit" Work for You

Sponsored Searches:

Comments:

.................................

I believe the technical term for deducting the costs of a trip taken primarily for pleasure as a business expense is "cheating."

According to the IRS, "If your trip was primarily for personal reasons, such as a vacation, the entire cost of the trip is a nondeductible personal expense." You are only allowed to deduct "expenses you have while at your destination that are directly related to your business." So you could deduct the cost of the business cards you handed out in the hotel lobby, but not the cost of the hotel. See http://www.irs.gov/publications/p463/ch01.html#en_US_publink100033800.

Posted by haverwench on February 10, 2011 3:52 PM

.................................

haverwench is 100% correct. Do not try this one. Also, the IRS hs much stricter rules than in the past on all those "home office" and "business car" write offs.

Posted by Claudia on February 10, 2011 3:59 PM

.................................

How did 11 tips turn into 5

Posted by Meg on February 10, 2011 6:36 PM

.................................

@Meg: If you click the link at the bottom of the post, you'll find all 11 tips from Dolans. When we create posts based on another site's article, we want to share a good amount of information with you but don't want to give away all of their tips if possible. We want to make sure they get the credit they deserve by providing linkage and leaving some reason for our readers to visit their site as well!

Posted by Kira @ Tip Hero on February 11, 2011 9:25 AM

.................................

-----------------------------------------

Share Your Comments:

Comments may need to be approved before they are displayed.

Comments:

User Name (required):

Email Address (required - but your email address will not be displayed):

Website URL (not required; please do not include "http://"):