(MONEY Magazine) – You know about tax planning: It's what you should do to keep your tax bill as low as possible and what most of us never get around to. A great time to look for tax-cutting moves would be right after the ordeal of April 15, but taxes are the last thing you want to think about at that time. Then there's year- end, but that's when you have a million more interesting things to do -- like go Christmas shopping. The truth is, summertime is actually the ideal time to devise ways to cut your taxes, if you can tear yourself away from the beach and the barbecue. After all, your '93 1040 is still relatively fresh in your mind, your tax preparer has time to help you plan for '94 and you have six months left to put your strategies to work. Before you make any other tax moves, be sure you're keeping all the tax records you need to claim '94 write-offs. As a Los Angeles tax preparer, I handle hundreds of clients' tax returns each year. So take it from me: There is nothing so mundane yet so critical to reducing your taxes as this housekeeping tip. It's especially important to keep written documentation -- receipts, canceled checks and credit-card slips -- of deductible cash transactions for, say, charitable or business gifts. (For your '94 taxes you will need written documentation from the charity itself of all gifts worth $250 or more.) This way, as summer gives way to fall and then the tax season, you won't lose valuable write-offs simply because you can't remember what you spent months ago. Here's my list of the nine most promising -- and easily overlooked -- midyear '94 tax moves. (I have a special timely tip on page 114 for couples planning to marry soon.) So pick a sultry afternoon in July and start investigating these tax savers, with your tax pro if you have one. You could save 10% or more on your taxes, and you might even find that a couple bump you down into a lower bracket. 1. Invest more for capital gains. Midyear is a great time to re-evaluate your investment portfolio, especially this year when so many stocks, bonds and funds have dropped 10% or more. When you look at your holdings, keep in mind that the 1993 tax law widened the gap between the top tax rate on interest and dividends -- 39.6% for incomes of $250,000 or more -- and the maximum capital- gains rate, now 28%. This makes investing for capital gains, rather than income, especially appealing from a tax standpoint. Say you're married, in the 31% bracket with taxable income of $95,000 and have $3,000 of investment income this year. If you received the earnings as interest or dividends, you'd pay $930 in federal income taxes on the money. But if it was all capital gains, you'd owe only $840. For the names of some worthy stock mutual funds that invest primarily for capital gains, see the cover story on page 72. 2. Earn interest now, pay tax later. If you expect to be in a lower tax bracket next year, buy a six-month Treasury bill after July 1, and the interest won't be taxed until you pay your 1995 taxes in '96. The current yield: 4.6%. Better yet, you don't pay state or local tax on Treasury interest. For information on buying T-bills, call 202-874-2000. 3. Let your gifts count twice. Try to donate appreciated property instead of cash to a charity. You'll do well by doing good. Suppose you want to donate $5,000 to your favorite cause and you own $5,000 in stock that you paid $3,000 for three years ago. If you sell the stock to make the contribution, you will pay a capital-gains tax on your $2,000 gain -- costing you as much as $560. But give the stock directly to the charity instead and you can take a $5,000 charitable write-off and bypass the capital-gains tax entirely. 4. Grab those elusive miscellaneous deductions. When you filed your '93 return, did you just miss qualifying for these write-offs? Miscellaneous deductions -- such as employee business and investment expenses -- must exceed 2% of your adjusted gross income before you can claim any of them. So look for ways to pay '95 bills -- for subscriptions to investment newsletters, for instance -- this year, and you can write them off on your 1994 Schedule A. 5. Give a needy teen a summer job. If you are self-employed, here's a tax break I bet you've never heard about: the targeted jobs credit. You can claim a fat 40% tax credit for up to $3,000 in wages paid to 16- and 17-year-olds who work for you between May 1 and Sept. 15. That's $1,200 right off your tax bill. The youth must be a member of an economically disadvantaged family. Full information is in IRS Publication 907; call 800-TAX-FORM for a free copy. 6. Claim those points. You may be able to file a 1040X amended return and get & a federal income tax refund if you bought a house since Jan. 1, 1990 and the seller paid your points. Last April the IRS issued a clarification stating that those points are now deductible for home buyers. If you borrowed, say, $80,000 in 1991, and the seller paid one point as an inducement to get you to buy, then you can deduct $800 on the amended return, setting yourself up for a $224 refund check if you were in the 28% bracket (taxable income of $34,000 to $82,150 for couples filing jointly or $20,350 to $49,300 for singles). Before filing an amended return, review your original return to be sure you or your preparer didn't already claim the deduction, as many people did. 7. Look into leasing a car to rev up tax savings. If you drive for business and need a car, leasing may be a smarter tax move than buying. Since 1991, car buyers haven't been allowed to write off the proportion of their auto-loan interest that covers their personal driving. And your depreciation is limited if you buy a car priced over $14,300, so a $30,000 car, for example, can't be fully depreciated for 15 years. By contrast, you can write off the full cost of the business-use percentage of a leased car over the term of the lease, normally in three to five years. For example, if your lease payments are $400 a month and you use the car 100% of the time for business, you can write off $4,800 a year regardless of the car's cost. Lessees can hit some tax potholes, though. For example, you must report as income the personal-use portion of the lease payments. You can get more details about auto leasing and taxes in IRS Publication 917. 8. Dive into real estate. Last year's tax law offers a unique tax break that may be especially enticing to retirees whose only job is selling or managing real estate. The provision says that if real estate is your primary occupation -- you must put in a minimum of 750 hours a year -- and you have passive losses from investment real estate such as apartment buildings, you may be able to deduct those losses against your other taxable income. The rental real estate provision is a double delight: The write-offs reduce not only your taxable income but also the amount of your Social Security benefits subject to tax. Don't forget, the '93 tax law raised the taxable amount of Social Security benefits from 50% to 85% for retirees with incomes over $34,000 ($44,000 for couples filing jointly). 9. Vacation at home. Check into your second home instead of a hotel between - now and year-end. In certain cases, unless your personal use of the property in 1994 tops 14 days or 10% of the total days rented, any excess rental- expense deductions will be swept away. Worse still, your interest deduction for the personal-use portion will be lost entirely. Check the rental rules in a tax book or with your tax adviser. Then think of Uncle Sam as your travel agent and go take a vacation at your second home.