Tax Tips To Increasing Your Refund

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- If you haven't filed your tax return yet, you have about a month left to do it but first there may be some tax saving tips that may help increase your refund.

If you are like millions of Americans who have put off dealing with their tax return, there is still hope for you.

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Financial adviser Charles Sachs has three moves you can do right now and deduct from your 2014 tax return.

"Forget about year-end tax planning. Let's talk about beginning of year tax planning. There is a whole host of things you can do," Sach said.

His first tip for maximizing tax savings is to open up a health savings account. Essentially it's money set aside for medical expenses. Whatever you save can be rolled over from year to year.

If your single you can sock away $3,300 dollars. Families can do about twice that.

"If your employer offers a health savings account great. If they don't you can go to a bank or you can go online and you can fund this yourself, very similar to an IRA... and you can even find some places where you can invest the money," said Sachs. " The idea is the money is there to be able to spend on those qualified medical expenses: Prescriptions, doctors' visits."

Sach's said the best part about HSAs is  anyone can do them.

"There is no income limit. You can make a half million dollars and you can still fund your HSA."

Sach's second tip has to do with IRA's.

"A lot of people get confused or say I can't do an IRA, or I can't deduct an IRA. The answer is it's a seperate side bucket. Everyone who's working with earned income can fund an IRA," Sach said.

Those under 50 and make under sixty thousand dollars, you can sock away $5,500 to an IRA this year. Those 50 and up can contribute an extra $1000. This money is tax deferred, meaning you won't pay tax on it until you withdraw.

"If you are taking it out before age 59 and half there could be some penalties and taxes," Sachs explained.

Sach's final tip is for those who are self-employed or have a small side business. It's called a Simplified Employee Pension I-R-A or SEP IRA. You can essentially put up to 20% of your profits into an IRA tax free. The maximum contribution is $52,000 and you can do this for 2014 earnings right now.

"Not only are they putting that money back in the pocket from taxes but they are having this money to grow for their retirement. The single biggest risk out there is people who are looking to live into their 90's or even longer," Sachs said.

Using Sachs tips to open up a health savings account and an IRA, you can deduct $10,000 or more of your income. That could mean $2,000 to $3,000 more dollars back on your refund.For couples filing together you could get even more.

Sachs advises people with questions should go to an accountant or financial planner for more information on how to go about doing all of this.