You are bound to hear news stories over the coming week about Black Friday sales and some of those are going to include how to keep yourself safe when shopping online. Now I can’t necessarily say that things are going to be more dangerous on that day – as I doubt that’s really the case – but it’s a big enough day to make stories hit a little bit closer to home and sound scarier. Heck, even the IRS has planned its annual Security Summit to start on December 2, right on the heels of the big day.

Now sure, some of this is scare tactics, but that doesn’t mean there are not common-sense measures you should be using to protect your personal information any time of year. So here a few highlights from the IRS’s longer spiel on the subject to keep in mind.

If you are on a website and going to make a purchase, take a half-second and make sure it’s a secure website. This can be done by noting if the site’s address starts with https instead of http, and many browsers will also give you an indicator with a symbol, such as a lock. This is especially important if you are on a website that you accessed by an email link. It is not difficult for scammers to make emails and websites look official and that extra check can help make you safe.

Along those lines, trust your email’s spam filter. Sure, things that you actually wanted to see occasionally end up in a junk folder, and we often have no idea why. Most of the things that are there, though, are things you did not want, which means it tends to do a pretty good job. So be extra wary of communication that lands there.

Standard security software works pretty well, too, and most people put it on their electronic devices at some point. It only keeps working pretty well, however, if you keep it updated. If you installed it on your computer three years ago, it’s only keeping you safe against attacks that existed three years ago. Those out to get information via nefarious means haven’t thrown up their hands in defeat because programs figured them out years ago, so you need to keep up with them.

And they do win sometimes, which can be scary. That’s why news stories about them exist at all, and it’s why stories of large data breaches get larger stories. If scammers do gain some information from you, things get even scarier. You can at least mitigate some of the damage by not using the same password for everything you sign into.

This can be extra important for there are some passwords you do occasionally share. I mean it can be fine for your kids to know the Netflix password, but you might not also want them to then have the knowledge necessary to access your bank accounts.

Security is important, so talking and thinking about it should happen. Actions to stay secure should also happen. Simple steps can help you feel safer and stop you from giving in to fear.

Since the passage of Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, talk of charitable donations and how it affects your tax situation has changed for many. If you’re one of the many who went from itemizing deductions to no longer doing so, you may now be donating money and not worrying about how it’s recorded.

That situation is not necessarily bad, for you SHOULD still be giving that money. There is great value in donating money to worthy causes even if it doesn’t affect your tax picture.

For those who are still in a position where your charitable giving affects your tax picture, however, there’s nothing wrong with being sure that you put it to its best use in all areas. So this week I wanted to write a little bit about how you can do that.

In this space, I can only hit on some of the big issues that you may not have realized you should think about. If you want to get deeper into it, click here for the IRS’s information on the subject, or always feel free to contact us and set up a personal discussion for your own situation.

The big thing here is to be sure you can substantiate the money that you give. Essentially, you want a record of everything you contribute. An easy way to do this is making donations by check so that the cancelled check serves as that record. Many charities will also give written communication (either with each donation or at the end of the year with a total for that year) detailing what you donated and this will also serve for substantiation purposes.

Things gets a little trickier when it comes to cash giving. There is some wiggle room with what you can claim you gave via cash, but if it is anything over $250, you will need a receipt to officially have it allowed.

These things get even trickier when you donate to an organization and get something in return. For example, if you give $100 and get a ticket to an event valued at $50, only the $50 difference is considered a charitable contribution.

(Trigger warning, the IRS discussion of this involves the term quid pro quo, a term that used to seem so innocent, but now you may be tired of hearing it.)

Then there are the situations where you donate property to a charitable organization. If this is something smaller, like donating clothes to Goodwill for example, getting written acknowledgment of the donation is enough. Once these donations go over $500, though, you move into the area where additional tax forms will be needed. And if you get over $5,000 you start to get into an area where qualified appraisals could become necessary.

And if you do a lot of work yourself for a charitable organization, did you know that the mileage you drive for the group can also become deductible?

Overall, this is a deduction that seems very simple on its surface and is in fact simple for a wide variety of transactions. It doesn’t take THAT much, however, to get into the more complicated areas, and you will want to be sure that you are aware of the rules so that you get the full benefit of your gift.

The idea of who gets audited is one that seems to interest everyone. And of course it does, if there is are some tips on how it can be avoided, why wouldn’t you use them? Whenever I talk about the issue, though, I always harp on the idea that the best way to not worry about an audit is to make sure that your tax return is legitimate. If you fit in that legitimate category, then you can submit a return that uses the rules to your best advantage and know it will stand up to scrutiny. This doesn’t make an audit a fun experience, it will still be taxing (har har), but it won’t result in a huge financial hit.

Shedding some light on this issue was a recent tidbits column on taxes that I read. What it really comes down to is the issue between tax avoidance and tax evasion. Avoidance is the use of the rules to benefit yourself, while evasion is not paying what you actually owe. Evasion can come in many forms, be it underreporting income, making up expenses, shady bookkeeping practices, etc.  Whatever it is, it means you didn’t follow the rules in good faith.

This doesn’t mean that tax avoidance is always applauded, nor should it be. We all have heard stories about extremely wealthy people or corporations paying so little in taxes that it just feels wrong. Where you place the blame for that can vary and feel tough to place. Do you blame the person who takes advantage of a legal situation or do you blame those who instituted the rules in the first place? This can start to feel even worse when you realize that the IRS is understaffed and underfunded, which means less people are getting audited, and then you can’t help but think that people in such positions might be getting away with even more than they should.

And then if you personally get audited, how fair is that? What you should pay by any metric should be much lower than what others are getting away with, isn’t it? I think most people feel this way, but again, we can only do what we can within the rules under which we must play.

In the same article, it mentions mathematical errors being one reason that the IRS’s computer scanning could mark a return for potential audit.  Well, at least with ever more powerful electronic tools when it comes to preparing and filing, we can avoid that.

But it then mentions the potential marking of numbers that are out of the average range for those in similar positions to the taxpayer. Does that mean we shouldn’t use them, though, if they are legitimate? Of course not. Let this be the time when you can get back at the system. Maybe you made some moves that put you in a better spot than others, well then you should be able to reap all the benefits that come with that. At that point, you’re not doing any evading, you are just planning well. And no one should hold that against you, right?