If you found yourself looking for a new job in 2008, you have an opportunity to take some major tax deductions before April 15. There are a few conditions, of course. You can’t be currently employed and looking for work — and you can’t have taken a long chunk of time off between your last job and your new one. If, for instance, you’re a parent returning to the work force after staying at home with the kids for a couple of years, you can’t take advantage of these tax breaks. You also must itemize your job hunting expenses in order to claim them, and complete a Schedule A.

What Job Hunt Expenses Can You Deduct?

1. Resume preparation: If you hire a resume writer, the expense is deductible. That includes everything from revising your resume to tweaking it for specific employers. You can even write off the expense of having someone set you up on LinkedIn to help snag a job.
2. Newspapers and job listings: If you read the want ads, you can deduct the price of your morning paper. You can also write off any expense associated with visiting online job boards, although your actual internet access may not be deductible as long as you use it for anything besides a job hunt.
3. Traveling: If you travel in order to interview or look for a new job, you can deduct everything from plane tickets to food expenses. Even if you’re only traveling within your home town, you can write off the mileage between your house and your interview. You will need to keep a mileage log to claim that particular deduction.
4. Career coaching: You can get assessments of your current skills, help planning your goals in your current career or coaching to improve your interview skills. All of the above do more than help you land a job — they all can be written off on your taxes.
5. Entrepreneurial efforts: As long as you’re staying in your previous profession, the expenses of becoming self-employed are deductible as part of your job search. If you’re setting up your own business, though, some of those expenses also are deductible as business expenses. Be careful not to deduct them twice — the IRS doesn’t look kindly on such an approach.

Getting Your Deductions

You’ll need to keep records and receipts for any job search expenses you plan to claim on your taxes. A copy of your credit card statement isn’t enough to convince the IRS to let you make deductions. It’s worth noting that everyone’s tax situation is different and that it is impossible to offer comprehensive tax advice over the internet. It’s definitely worthwhile to consult your own tax preparer before taking these deductions.

You may be wondering why the IRS is willing to offer you so much help in finding a new job. After all, you’d think that particular government agency wouldn’t care either way. The fact of the matter, though, is that it’s good business for the IRS to help you in your job hunt. The faster you get a new job, the faster you’re back at work, earning money. The IRS can’t take a chunk of your paycheck if you’re unemployed.

Popularity: 12% [?]

There are plenty of rumors about stimulus packages and taxes floating around these days — and many of them aren’t true. Instead, if you listen to them, you can find yourself a prime target for a scam. I’ve rounded up just a few of the scams which are making the rounds these days. Unfortunately, there are far more scams out there. The best defense you can have is to be aware of just what you’re doing with your money and read all the fine print.

1. The IRS is on the phone: There are a wide variety of scams that use the IRS’s name to get your personal information (like your Social Security number) over the phone or via email. While the exact reason the caller purportedly wants the information varies, scams like a claim that the IRS needs the information to send your tax refund or a stimulus check are common. Scammers use the information they collect through these phone calls and email to steal identities.
2. Landing government grants: The Better Business Bureau reported a scam this month that involves companies offering free advice on getting large government grants. The grants are claimed to be part of the stimulus package, although no such grants actually exist. The scammer typically offers to send a free CD to any requester, but those requesters are required to submit their credit or debit card number in order to receive it. Credit cards are then charged with reoccuring fees indefinitely — in many cases, the fees only stopped when the victim canceled his or her credit card. Many victims of the scam also report that they never received the CD. Some variations on the scam ask you to pay a small initial fee, around a dollar or so, in order to get your credit card account information.
3. Your stimulus check is in danger: Another scam connected with stimulus payments has been popping up in email accounts. You may receive an email from the IRS or other government agency, with a warning that you’re in danger of forfeiting your stimulus check if you do not respond immediately with your bank account information. The emails may ask for PINs, passwords and other secret access information — as well as taking you to fake websites where the same information can be stolen. That information is all a scammer needs to gain access to a bank account and empty it out. It can also be used in identity theft.

It seems like scammers come out in force when there are economic problems: the know that many people are desperate and they take advantage of that fact. To make matters worse, there are new scams (and variations on old ones) every day. Just because you’re familiar with the existing scams doesn’t mean that you can easily realized the next one out there. All you can do is investigate any situation that seems to good to be true, even if that means being suspicious of the emails and phone calls you receive.

Popularity: 13% [?]

President Obama is expected to sign the economic stimulus plan today, immediately creating some important changes in our taxes, our health insurance and our day-to-day lives. The actual plan weighs in at over one thousand pages, though, making it difficult for everyone to read up on exactly what it means for them. It’s honestly not worth reading the whole plan: not all of it is relevant information for the individual taxpayer. There are some specifics, however, that you should be aware of:

1. Many workers will receive a $400 tax credit in the form of an extra $13 in their weekly paychecks. The credit would go into affect in June.
2. The $1,000 child tax credit would be extended to many families who don’t earn enough to pay income taxes (which means they’ll actually be getting money back).
3. Low-income families with three or more children will receive an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit.
4. Middle and upper-income taxpayers will be shielded from the Alternative Minimum Tax.
5. If you are a first-time homebuyer purchasing a home before Dec. 1, you can receive an $8,000 tax credit — which you don’t have to pay back.
6. If you buy a new car before the end of the year, you can write off the sales tax.
7. Homeowners making their homes more energy efficient are eligible for a tax credit to cover up to 30 percent of the costs, for a total of $1,500.
8. College students can receive a tax credit of up to $2,500 to help pay tuition and other education expenses. Parents helping their children with such costs can also be eligible.
9. If you receive unemployment benefits in 2009, you won’t have to pay federal income taxes on the first $2,400 you receive. 
10. The government will cover up to 65 percent of your COBRA premiums during the first 9 months of COBRA coverage to make sure you can still receive health insurance even if you lose your job.
11. Pell Grants, which help low-income students with college expenses will increase to $5,350 (they’re currently set at $4,731).
12. The tuition tax credit will be 40 percent refundable, which means that families who don’t pay enough income tax to take the full credit will receive extra money back.
13. Computer expenses can now be claimed as allowable expenses for 529 college savings plans.
14. Individuals receiving food stamps will get a bump in their aid, as well those drawing unemployment checks.
15. Anyone receiving Supllemental Security Income will receive a one-time payment of $250.

In addition to these direct benefits to taxpayers, the federal government is handing a lot of money to state governments. The goal is to reduce budget cuts and job losses on the state level in such areas as education and Medicaid. The federal government will also be sending a lot of money to building infrastructure (repaving roads, updating buildings and so forth) and to research in an effort to create jobs.

Most of the benefits above involve your taxes. You may need to consult a tax professional to see how the package actually affects you, and learn how to actually claim benefits.

Popularity: 9% [?]

President-elect Barack Obama still has a couple of weeks until his inauguration on Jan. 20, but he’s already starting to push a major economic recovery plan. It’s full of tax cuts, incentives for creating jobs and infrastructure improvement. While the plan is by no means finalized, estimated costs are somewhere around $675 and $775 billion.

What Does It Mean For Me?

The fact that Obama has an economic recovery plan that he wants to pass once he’s elected is a great concept. However, it’s a little harder to translate a plan into what most people can actually expect in terms of tax cuts and other help.

• Tax Credit for Workers: Obama’s plan calls for a tax credit for 95% of workers — $500 for individuals and $1,000 for families. Pretty much anyone making less than $200,000 would qualify — including those individuals who don’t actually make enough to pay federal income taxes. Obama’s team is hoping to make the credit retroactive, meaning that it would apply to your 2008 tax return.
• Tax Credit for Employers: Obama also wants to create a $3,000 tax credit for each new job created by existing businesses. There will also be some incentives for employers who manage to avoid cutting jobs. The idea is that there will be more jobs available, reducing unemployment. The two tax credits account for approximately half the estimated cost of Obama’s recovery plan.
• Improving Infrastructure: In order to keep in-progress and fast-tracked infrastructure projects on time, Obama plans to make $25 billion available to schools and other infrastructure projects. The money is intended to make sure that key repairs can be made, as well as helping keep workers needed for those projects employed. According to Obama’s plan, this move will preserve up to 1 million jobs.
• Extended Unemployment: Obama advocates extending unemployment benefits an additional 13 weeks in order to help workers who have already lost their jobs. Additionally, his plan allows for suspending taxes on unemployment insurance benefits, at least temporarily.
• Retirement Hardship Withdrawals: As it stands, there are huge penalties for withdrawing money from your 401(k) or IRA before you reach retirement age. Obama is in favor of allowing ‘hardship withdrawals’ — letting families withdraw up to $10,000 from their retirement accounts.
• Create Mortgage Restructuring Options: In order to help homeowners who have made good faith efforts to pay off their mortgages, Obama plans to allow the Secretaries of the Treasury and Housing and Urban Development to modify the terms of mortgages, as well as reforming the bankruptcy code to allow for more mortgage restructuring.
• Preventing Property Tax Increases: Obama wants to offer $25 billion to local governments to provide the money that they would otherwise have to be raised by increasing property taxes or cutting vital services.

There is far more to Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan, but it’s important to remember that the whole plan remains in flux. While Obama can send a bill outlining his plan to Congress as soon as he is sworn into office, Congress must still pass it before any part of the plan goes into action. And while the Democrats in both the House and Senate will do everything they can to pass the plan as is, there will probably be quite a bit of negotiating before the final product passes.

Popularity: 11% [?]

You’ve still got about six months before you really have to start worrying about your taxes, right? If you don’t want to reduce your tax bill, that’s true. But if you want to see if you can bring down your taxes a little, it’s worth thinking about in advance.

Tax-Free Days

Several states have a day or two where they don’t charge sales tax. These sales tax holidays are often timed to go with ‘Back to School’ sales. It’s worth looking into whether your state (or any state in easy driving distance) has a sales tax holiday before the end of the year.

It’s easy to forget that any sales tax you pay goes to the government, just like your income tax. It isn’t really part of the price of anything you buy. If you can at least cut back that amount by a bit, why wouldn’t you want to?

Your Home

There are a whole stack of tax deductions that go along with owning or buying a home. Your mortgage interest, along with any points fee you paid to your lender is tax deductible. If you have a home equity loan, you can deduct that as well.

I previously wrote about the tax credit available for first-time home buyers this year. I wouldn’t suggest buying a house just to take advantage of that credit, but it may help you take advantage of other tax breaks.

If you already own a home and you’ve been considering some renovations, you might want to get them done before the end of the year — especially if you’re looking at greening your home. You can write off the interest on a home improvement loan. If you make your home more energy efficient, install solar panels or otherwise go green, there are a wide variety of tax credits and rebates you can qualify for on both the state and federal levels.

Your Business

If you don’t already run your own business, it may be time to consider opening up shop. The list of business expenses you can write off for a home business is extensive: you can write off a percentage of your utility bills and mortgages, along with the full cost of just about anything you need to run your business.

It’s simple to set up a sole proprietorship and you don’t have to have a fancy operation to get the tax deductions. Selling stuff on eBay is enough to qualify you — and you might just make some money on top of reducing your taxes.

Do Some Research

Giving tax advice over the internet can be a bit problematic: because everyone’s tax situation is different, I wouldn’t recommend that you immediately set out on any of these plans. Instead, do a little checking and make sure that you understand what you have to do to qualify for any particular tax deduction or credit. The IRS’ website is a good place to start — all of the paperwork you might need is available online. If the rules and regulations seem a little complex though, it might be worthwhile to consult a tax professional.

Popularity: 37% [?]

It may sound morbid, but it’s true: if you’re working on getting your personal finances in order, it’s time to make a will. And every time your personal finances go through a major change, you need to update your will. If you buy a new house, if you have a child, if you pay off all your debt (and that does include mortgages and student loans) — your personal finances are the key constraint to what sort of documents you need to protect your estate.

I’ve heard people — especially young people — ask what a will has to do with personal finances. Odds are that you’re not entirely alone in life: you may be married, have parents, siblings, children, none of whom are going to know where to start tying up your affairs. Furthermore, depending on what you plan to do with your assets in the long run, personal finance and estate planning go hand in hand. If you plan to help out specific family members — usually children, but the laws allow for other relatives as well — you may want to consider setting up a trust or other vehicle to reduce taxes or other personal finance issues.

Having a conversation about estate planning can feel a bit strange — after all, most personal finance gurus tell you to focus on earning money so that you can enjoy life, not think about everything that can go wrong. But talking with your loved ones about how you want to handle your estate is a good first step. You may also want to talk to a financial planner or a lawyer — the laws involved are fairly complicated. Even if you feel competent in doing your own taxes, you may want professional help for estate planning.

There are some issues to consider when planning your estate, beyond how you choose to handle your assets. Decisions that are going to affect your finances, such as your health care and which family members should receive power of attorney if something happens to you, should also be considered. Think about a situation in which you were temporarily incapacitated: do you want a judge to pick one of your relatives to handle your finances, or do you want to pick that individual? If you care, you should take care of that issue sooner rather than later.

I know that the entire thought of planning in the extreme long-term seems morbid at best, but it’s worth taking care of in the near future. And there are ways to make long-term planning pay off in the short-term, if you’re willing to investigate your options.

Popularity: 14% [?]