Here’s my segment from Monday, March 22nd on NBC10′s “10!” show during which I discuss how to get cash for your clutter and my new book Toss, Keep, Sell: The Suddenly Frugal Guide to Getting Organized and Making Money from Your Stuff (yes, that’s the new title for Cash for Clutter).

I never look forward to filing and paying my taxes, but ever since becoming a homeowner in 1999 I’ve enjoyed certain tax benefits. Those continue to this day, including some new ones that I intended to take advantage of, having made some energy-efficient improvements to our home in 2009.

Here are a dozen such benefits you may be eligible for on your 2009 taxes, courtesy of CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business and a leading provider of tax, accounting and audit information, software and services:

1. A refundable “first-time homebuyers’ credit” of 10 percent of the purchase price of a new home – capped at $8,000 – is available for homes purchased between January 1, 2008 and before July 1, 2010. The purchasers must enter into a binding agreement to purchase before May 1, 2010, and must not have had an “ownership interest” in a principal residence during the three years before the purchase.  For purchases on or after November 6, 2009, purchasers must be at least 18 years old and homes must have a purchase price under $800,000.
2. A refundable “repeat homebuyers’ credit” is available for taxpayers who purchase a new home on or after November 6, 2009, and who have lived in a previous home for five consecutive years out of the last eight. The credit is 10-percent of the purchase price, but capped at $6,500. The buyers must enter a contract to buy the home no later than April 30, 2010, and must close on the sale before July 1, 2010.  Purchasers must be at least 18 years old and homes must have a purchase price under $800,000. (Wish this one had been available when we purchased our current house in 2007; we’d lived in our previous house for eight years and would have definitely qualified.
3. Homeowners can exclude up to $250,000 of gain on the sale of their homes (up to $500,000 for joint filers) if they have owned and lived in the home for two out of the five years prior to the sale. The periods of ownership and occupancy do not have to be identical.
4. Homeowners can take the interest on their mortgage indebtedness of up to $1 million as an itemized deduction. The interest can be on their principal residence and one additional residence.
5. For ordinary income purposes, up to $100,000 in home-equity loan interest can also be deducted.  For purposes of the alternative minimum tax (AMT), interest on home equity loans is deductible only if the loan is used to acquire, build or “substantially improve” a home.
6. For 2009 and through 2010, mortgage insurance premiums also are deductible as mortgage interest.  However, the mortgage insurance had to be originally acquired on or after January 1, 2007.
7. Homeowners can also take their state and local property taxes as an itemized deduction.
8. Non-itemizing homeowners can take their state and local property taxes as an additional standard deduction up to $500 ($1,000 for joint filers) on their 2009 returns.
9. If a homeowner’s mortgage debt of up to $2 million on their principal residence is forgiven, as in a write-down or foreclosure, it is not treated as “cancellation of debt income.” This special relief is temporary and is available for six years, retroactively for discharges after January 1, 2007 through December 31, 2011.
10. Homeowners who install certain energy-efficient exterior doors and  windows, insulation, heat pumps, furnaces, central air conditioners  and water heaters can receive a 30-percent tax credit in both 2009 and  2010, but there is a lifetime limit of $1,500 on the credit. (I’ve still got the receipts from the purchase of and stickers that came on the energy-efficient windows–11 of them–and two doors we installed in 2009.)
11. A separate 30-percent credit is available to homeowners who install  alternative energy equipment such as fuel cells, solar water heaters,  solar electric equipment, small wind energy property and geothermal  heat pumps.
12. Low-income homeowners who hold mortgage credit certificates from state  or local governments can claim a tax credit.  Relatively few people  qualify – only about 35,000 in 2007 – but the average credit that year  was over $1,000.

The kitchen, down to the studs.

This weekend we finished up spackling in the dining room, leaving it to be the last room we have to paint from our renovation. This means that once it’s done, I can put away the drop cloths and painting rollers for good. I painted the new kitchen earlier in the weekend, and helped Bill to finish installing the cabinets. On Friday we both took the day off so we could choose and order our countertops (black granite). A few weeks before that we’d sheetrocked the new kitchen, including taping, spackling and sanding, plus Bill installed new hardwood floors all throughout the new space.

Perhaps in reading this you’re hearing a cash register ring in your head for each thing we accomplished in the addition. We did spend money on supplies, to be sure, but it’s amazing how much we saved by doing so much of the work ourselves. In fact, here are 5 ways we’ve managed to save $35,000 on our remodel:

1. Ripped out the old drywall in the kitchen and installed new. Had we hired someone to do the job, we would have spent: at least $2,500.
2. Installed hardwood floors in the newly remodeled space. Had we hired someone to do the floor install, we would have spent: $5,100
3. Put in the new kitchen cabinets. Had we had Lowe’s or Home Depot, or another home improvement company install the cabinets, we would have spent: at least $25,000 (this is for the install alone; the cabinets cost is separate.)
4. Painted the new space. Had we hired someone to come in and do all the painting, we would have spent: $2,100.
5. Went to a wholesaler/fabricator for our countertops. Had we just ordered our granite countertops from a home improvement store, we would have spent: $1,000 more on the same amount of granite

With numbers like this do you think you would jump in and try some of this, to save the big bucks, too? I’m so glad we did. And I can’t wait until the house is done and we can say, “Hey, we did this all ourselves.” Now sure it would be nice to have had someone do all this at once and be done with it, but I know I wouldn’t have wanted to spend that kind of cash to get the job done.

As taxpayers begin to organize their financial documents, prepare tax returns and apply for refunds, Thomas Oscherwitz, chief privacy officer for ID Analytics, Inc. and former U.S. Senate Legislative expert on identity fraud, offers the following 7 tips to safeguard your identity and assets this tax season.

1. Monitor your mailbox. Keep a lookout for official tax forms, like 1099s and W-2s. Missing or lost documents could be a sign of identity theft and should be investigated immediately. Companies must mail your W-2s and 1099s by January 31st, meaning if there were any coming your way, they should have arrived by now. Call your employer or any of your clients if you haven’t received those forms yet.

2. Protect your sensitive tax documents. During tax time, many of the forms consumers handle have sensitive information of immense value to identity thieves, such as your Social Security number on them. Keep your tax documents in a safe, secure place that is out of public view.

3. Beware of scams. Tax time is a prime time for fraudsters to target consumers with phony emails asking for their personal information. Remember that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) does not initiate communication with taxpayers through email.

4. Track IRS communications carefully. If you receive an unusual notification from the IRS, such as a report of wages from an employer you do not know, be alert to possible identity theft. Call the IRS Identity Protection Specialized Unit at (800) 908-4490 just to be sure.

5. Keep tabs on your annual income statement from the Social Security Administration. A fraudster can steal your SSN and use it to get a job. The fraudster’s employer would then report the fraudster’s wages under your SSN to the IRS. Check for any discrepancies between the income reported and the wages you received. In addition, be aware that the IRS may then think you have not reported all of your income on your tax return.

6. Pay attention to duplicate returns. If someone steals your identity, they could file a tax return first using your SSN. Then when you file your return, the IRS will think you have already received a refund or that you have filed a second copy or duplicate return. This confusion will cause delays in receiving your refund.

7. Contact the IRS if you are victim. The IRS now has a toll-free number (800-908-4490) to assist identity theft victims. They will mark affected accounts to resolve identity theft issues more quickly.