Financial Planner

Checklist: Tax Adjustments

Things to do this weekend with your money:

The rest of the tax documents you’ll need to file your 1999 return should be arriving in the next week or so. These documents can give you a picture of your tax situation and help you make adjustments for 2000.

* Today: Review the 1099 forms from your brokerage accounts. If you made a lot of short-term trades, consider moving such activity to your tax-deferred retirement accounts. Instead of incurring short-term capital gains, which are taxed as ordinary income, you can put off the tax bill until you withdraw the money in retirement. Better yet, consider a buy-and-hold strategy; the costs of active trading typically outweigh the benefits.

* Saturday: Review whether you’re better off keeping short-term savings in taxable or tax-exempt money market funds. Generally speaking, Californians in the 28% federal bracket and above are better off in tax-exempt funds; those in lower brackets will earn more in taxable funds. A tax equivalent calculator can help you decide; one to try is at https://www.quicken.webcrawler.com/taxes/taxequivcalc.

* Sunday: Employers are required to send W-2 forms by Jan. 31. If you haven’t received yours after the first week of February, call the company. If that doesn’t help, you often can use IRS Form 4852 and your last paycheck of December to reconstruct a missing W-2. For more information, call the IRS at (800) 829-1040 or visit its Web site at https://www.irs.gov.