It’s hard to believe we’re almost at the end of the year already. As I write this, there are only a few weeks left in 2008.

Most people probably aren’t thinking about taxes yet, but the time to do tax planning is before the year ends. Once December 31 has passed, there’s very little you can do to help reduce your 2008 taxes.

The first step in tax planning is to determine where you are for the year. Pull out last year’s tax return for a reference. You also need your...