It's that time of year again. I remember back in the day, my father would break out the pencils, calculator and boxes of receipts and settle in for what seemed like an exhausting weekend of figuring out the family's taxes. We were told not to bother dad because it was "important stuff." After I got a job and starting paying, I understood why.

I found this article from ABC News pretty interesting. If you are planning on doing your taxes on your own or even if you have a professional prepare them for you, there are some things that you may want to know in advance. For example, many people like to contribute to charity..

How do you find the value of non-cash charitable contributions?

With all the devastation last year related to Superstorm Sandy and other tragedies, many people volunteered time, money and donated their belongings. You can deduct travel expenses if it's related to volunteering directly with a non-profit organization. When it comes to the value of goods donated, you can deduct the fair market value at which they would re-sell an item. TurboTax also has a tool called, "it's deductible," which estimates the fair market value of a good based on its characteristic

Have kids? What about all this talk about health care? How will affect you? This article should be pretty helpful as a guide.

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