The time of the year has come when you will have to show the taxman your earnings and how much tax he gets from you. It is important that you remember your individual tax returns will have to be submitted to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) latest by the April 15th. There can be an exemption if you have applied for one and received an extension.

All of us would like to save our money from paying taxes, but instead of looking for gray areas and loopholes it is always better to manage our tax affairs intelligently and efficiently for maximum tax refund. Let us look at a few personal and business tips to make the tax paying a little lighter on your pocket at the time of completing the returns and get the highest tax refund possible. .

Expenses for travel
It is a good idea to keep a logbook for mileage so that you can keep an account of the distance travelled. This will help you to exactly know about your travel deduction. . If you are engaged in two jobs then deduction of traveling costs from the first one to the second one is a possibility. This is however not possible if you have one job and deducting commuting costs is not feasible as it is taken to be a personal expense and not a business one. The travel costs that are deductible are airfares, taxis, car rentals, tolls, parking fees etc. Costs to attend seminars are also considered 100%deductible if you show them as travel for business.

Expenses for medical treatments
It is imperative that you keep all the statements and invoices of medical expenses for the ones which are not reimbursed by the medical aid you have taken so that you get the best possible tax refund. This will help you to get a deduction on those expenses. There are also some medical expenses like dental insurance premiums and health insurance premiums that can be made deductible. This is however dependent on your income. You can also try to convert the non deductible medical expense that is personal into a business expense that is legitimate.

Expenses . for entertainment
For this it is important to know that since March 1, 2002, there can be no deductions that can be claimed for entertainment reasons which are personal. You must be sure that the allowances given to you by your employer are fully taxed, lest when there is an assessment you might land up with tax liability.

Since this is the taxpaying season, keeping all your tax records updated, will help you to smoothly file your tax returns and get maximum tax refund.