I have heard from lots of people that do something like the following:
2007 TAXES:
1. pay real estate taxes (for 2007) in Januay 2007 and write off
1. pre-pay interest (for January 2008) in Dec 2007 and write off
2. pay real estate taxes (for 2008) in Dec 2007 and write off
2008 TAXES:
3. take the standard deduction
2009 TAXES:
4. pay real estate taxes (for 2009) in January 2009 and write off
5. pre-pay interest (for January 2010) in December 2009 and write off
6. pay real estate taxes (for 2010) in December 2009 and write off
2010 TAXES:
7. take the standard deduction
etc...
This works if the amount of your real estate taxes (plus anything else you deduct) is more than half of the standard deduction. No matter how much I think about it, I can't decide when this stops working, though
.
Oh, and there is no "interest on your taxes"...unless you are behind on paying them. I think what Hypersion meant was "interest on your mortgage"
Also, if you live in a state that does not have income taxes, you can write off the sales tax if you itemize. You can either keep track of it purchase by purchase, or you can use a table the IRS provides. (You CAN do this in a state that has income taxes as well, but you usually write off the income taxes, which would be higher than the sales taxes.) On top of the amount in the table, you can also deduct things like taxes on automobile purchases, taxes on home improvement projects and other major purchases (look it up). So, in the above scenario, if you are planning on doing major home improvements in 2008, or planning on getting a vehicle, you could buy it Dec 2007 (even if the work wouldn't be done until summer 2008) and then any other major purchases could be done January 2009.