Tax Day for 2011 has come and gone and while you may think gathering tax documents and evaluating your finances will be off your mind for another year, planning for your income taxes is a year round exercise. It never hurts to be prepared and stay organized throughout the year to ensure when 2012’s tax day arrives, you are ready and have everything in place. Below are some helpful tips to think about in order to prepare for next year’s tax filing and keep your finances in check for the year to come:

• Taxpayers with income other than wages need to consider making estimated tax payments based either upon their estimated income for 2012 or their 2011 taxes.
• Taxpayers need to review if they will be able to make contributions to IRA’s or other retirement plans. This is something to consult with your tax of financial advisor.
• Now is a good time to review your investment portfolio and consider re-balancing your investments.
• With the uncertainty surrounding gift taxes, taxpayers should consider developing a gifting strategy for both annual and life-time exclusions. With college tuition bills coming due shortly, it is important to remember that grandparents can pay school tuition bills directly without it effecting gift taxes.

Read HERE to read the Record Retention Guides for both business and personal lists of what to keep for the future