Tax Day’s Over—Now What? - DM 104

Hey doctors! Tax day is over, but what can you do now to help with your taxes for this year? Hey, it's Jon from Financial MD, welcome to today's Didactic Minute.

Now it's after April 15th, hopefully your taxes have been filed or extended and are not late. But if they have, you want to start to take a look now at what you can do. Do you remember that thought as you were prepping your taxes and looking at your tax return, and looking at what your tax bill was going to end up being, or how small your refund was going to be? And you were looking at it, saying, “Gosh, what could I have done?”

Well, now is the time to think about that. Don't wait. I know life is busy, but don't put it off till next January, February, March, or April, thinking, “Shoot! I did it again. What could I have done?” And then don't think, “Oh, there's nothing I could have done.” Because there are things. Even as a W-2… even as a resident.

Now, are there more options when you're an attending? Sure. Are there more options when you're a 1099? Absolutely. But don't think there's nothing. At the very least, sit down and look at: Should I put more in my 401(k) or 403(b)? Should I put more in my HSA? Should I itemize? Should I take mortgage interest deductions? Should I take local and state taxes? Should I take student loan interest deductions? There are things. Should I put solar on my house? There are a lot of things that can impact it, but you've got to make sure that you're asking those questions now, or at least at some point in this year. I want you to start thinking about it now before you get to January or February. Maybe there's nothing, but at least you can put the check in the box and say, “I thought about it.”

So, talk to a tax professional. It makes sense just to take half an hour and talk to a CPA and ask these questions. You're going to be glad you did. And if the answer is nothing, well, now you know. There's nothing else that you could have done. But it's worth the ask.

So, be thinking about it. Do some research. We've got more videos coming out. Make sure you share this if you know other docs that need to be thinking about these things, and frankly, want to pay less in taxes.

So, subscribe here. If you've got a specific question, you can put it in the comments or you can direct message us. Go to financialmd.com. Shoot us a message. Check out our podcast because we come out with more in-depth things. We've got new episodes coming out every other week.

This is Jon from Financial MD. We'll see you next time.

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