Mastering Taxes: Slash Your Taxes and Have Fun Doing It!
What you'll learn
- Identify the most useful deductions and credits
- Decode common tax forms
- Differentiate between taxable and non-taxable income
- Understand how your taxes are computed
- Utilize free tax preparation resources
Requirements
- You should be a US taxpayer with an interest in learning about your taxes and how to maximize your savings. That's all!
Description
Learn the basic factors that determine how much you pay in taxes and common strategies to save hundreds or thousands of dollars a year.
Learn to Save Thousands in Taxes with this 1 Hour Course
- Demystify Tax Rates and Brackets
- Master Timing and Deductions
- Decode Common Tax Forms
- Harness The Biggest Tax Breaks
Go Beyond Tax Software and Master Your Taxes
If you make money, you probably pay taxes. And if you pay taxes, there are things you could be doing to reduce the amount you pay.
But they’re not always obvious, and by the time you’re filling out forms in your tax software, it may be too late to maximize your savings.
Understanding the basics of how taxes are computed and what you can do to reduce your taxes throughout the year can pay off in the form of hundreds or thousands of dollars in savings each year.
Course Overview
For almost 25 years, we’ve produced a nationally syndicated consumer finance news segment called Money Talks with Stacy Johnson, garnering 2 Emmy’s for our reporting in the process and helping millions of viewers around the country save more and spend less. But there are some topics that can’t be tackled in a minute and a half news story. Reducing your taxes is one of those topics.
So we created this course, an enjoyable 1 hour video series that will take you from tax novice to tax master. You’ll learn the same strategies that tax pro’s advise their clients, simple and effective ways to reduce your tax bill every year, as well as some of the best tax breaks available to filers.
You’ll also learn some of the fundamentals of taxes, why you pay what you do, what income is and is not taxable, how to read a few of the most common tax forms, and when and where to go for more help if needed.
Your host, Stacy Johnson, has earned a CPA (now inactive) and held licenses in stocks, commodities, options principal, mutual funds, life insurance, securities supervisor, and real estate. After a 10 year stint working for Wall Street, he left behind a lofty salary to start Money Talks with Stacy Johnson, the longest-running syndicated consumer finance news segment on television today, in an effort to help as many people as possible learn to master their money, get out of debt, avoid scams and rip offs, and save for the future.
Since then, he’s authored 2 books, written and presented more than 3,000 personal finance news stories for the newscasts of NBC, CBS, ABC, and FOX affiliates nationwide, and speaks to audiences around the country about fiscal responsibility.
By the time you’re finished with this course, you’re going to feel a lot more confident filing your taxes. You’ll understand how your tax software arrived at its calculations, and you’ll know that you’ve done far more than the average filer to reduce the amount you pay. And best of all, you’ll be empowered to save money every year you have an income.
Who this course is for:
- This course is meant for anyone who'd like to learn more about their taxes and how they can be reduced. It's probably not for you if you already have a comprehensive knowledge of taxes, or your tax situation is complex enough that you require an accountant.
Course content
- Preview03:52
- Preview03:26
- 4 questionsTax Rates and Brackets Quiz
Instructor
![Stacy Johnson, CPA, Money Talks News](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 64 64"%3E%3C/svg%3E){kind=avatar}
- 4.5 Instructor Rating
- 108 Reviews
- 1,007 Students
- 2 Courses
Here's a little bit about me, my background, what I do and why I do it.
I'm a 60-something married guy (no kids) living in Fort Lauderdale, FL, the yachting capital of the world.
I live in a middle-class house on a canal off the intracoastal waterway and have a boat (1985 Bertram) behind my house. I love riding motorcycles (Softail Custom) sailing, fishing, traveling and laughing out loud as often as possible.
As far as credentials go, I earned my CPA in 1981 (now inactive), and over the years have also been licensed in stocks, commodities, options principal, mutual funds, life insurance, securities supervisor and real estate. I spent 10 years working for three Wall Street firms and have been investing in stocks and real estate for more than 35 years.
In 1991, I started Money Talks News, a personal finance TV news feature that airs within the local news of about 80 network affiliates nationwide as well as on major websites including MSN, Yahoo, and of course, this one!
I've now written and produced more than 3,000 personal finance news stories, picked up a couple of Emmys and written a few books, including what I modestly consider to be the best how-to-get-out-of-debt book in the universe, Life or Debt.
While I'm not rich in the Palm Beach/Central Park West sense, I'm financially independent -- meaning I work because I want to and not because I have to. I didn't get here by selling books, tapes or seminars. I did it the same way you will: one hard-fought paycheck at a time.