10. Check your withholding
Finally, stop giving Uncle Sam free use of a part of your hard-earned money. Most of us pay the bulk of our annual tax bill through payroll withholding, and it's important that the amount be as accurate as possible.

If you don't have enough taxes taken out of your paycheck, you could end up owing the IRS at tax-filing time. Worse, you could face penalties and interest if the shortfall is more than $1,000.

Going too far the other way with your withholding is not a good idea, either. Sure, over-withholding means you'll get a refund check when you do file. But that also means that the federal government, instead of you, has had access to your cash all these months. If you had been collecting the cash, you could have stashed it in a savings account or CD (Bankrate can help you find the highest rates), where it would have earned a little bit of interest and provided you with some extra money to spend on holiday gifts.

Making adjustments to your withholding is easy. If you find that too much tax is being taken out, put cash back in your pocket by increasing exemptions on your W-4 to reduce withholding. If you're not having enough withheld, you can prevent a huge tax bill on April 15 by reducing exemptions or even telling your boss a specific extra dollar amount you want withheld.

Your payroll manager office should have a new W-4 you can fill out, or you can download one from the IRS site. The key is to get the changes made before your last paycheck of the year is issued.

But even if you're too late to do anything about 2004's withholding, it's still a good time to look at what adjustments you should make for the coming year. This is especially important if circumstances in your life have changed -- you got married, had a child or bought a house. All of these affect your taxes and can be accounted for through payroll withholding.

And when the changes show up on your paycheck, you've got a head start on making sure that 2005 is a better tax year.