Tax Season is here. What can I write off?

Question

Now that it is tax season and I'm new to this country, could somebody please tell me what it is we (a couple) can write off?
We recently moved state, both of us attended some college courses, have 2 dogs(?) frequently donate to charity etc.
If we can infact write off moving expenses, then how? It's not like we kept every gas receipt when we filled up, so how does it work?
Thanks.

Answer 1

Let's see: Did you buy a house in 2006? If so, you can write off the closing costs, the property taxes, and the interest you paid on the mortgage. If you owned a house in 2006, you can still write off the property taxes and mortgage interest. You can also write off all the donations you made to charity (but you should have receipts or statements from the church/charity or you could get audited), you can write off your vehicle registration, you can write off mileage/wear and tear if you used your own vehicle to run errands for your employer, and you may be able to write off moving expenses. Now, bear in mind you can only do this if you itemize your deductions. For a married couple filing jointly, you get a standard deduction of around $10,000.00, so if your itemized deductions aren't at least $11,000.00 it's really not worth it to itemize -- you're better off taking the standard deduction and not doing all the additional paperwork. But if you can claim over $11,000.00 in itemized deductions and have the documentation to back it up, by all means itemize. If you take the standard deduction then you can do your taxes by yourselves, but if you want to itemize you should use TurboTax or employ the services of H&R Block or Jackson Hewitt so you can get as many itemized deductions as possible.

Answer 2

Good question. I would like to know as well. LOL