Sunday, March 23rd, 2008...7:45 pm

Tax Mistakes of 2007

This year I did my taxes without the assistance of an accountant.  I used the online free Turbo Tax program, which turned out to be $60 by the time I finished.   In the end I owed about $1270, but had I done a few minor things my guess is that taxable amount could have been lower.

  1. Charity receipts.  Before leaving San Diego  I donated a lot of stuff to Goodwill.   The one receipt I got was lost in the move.  Shame on me.  And I’m not going to make up a safe number.  Lesson learned.
  2. Theft report.  When my bike was stolen, I never filed a report with the police department.  I had no idea that was deductible.  Lesson learned.
  3. Dumb stock repurchase.  I bought and sold the same stock ticker inside 3 days.  Considering it was ETF that mirrored an index, I could have just picked a different index that moved in a similar pattern.   Now I do all my trading from my IRA account.  Lesson learned.

I’ve closed comments on this post so I’m not responsible for any bad or illegal advice.

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