When it comes to making dinner, Thursdays are the bane of my existence. After a long week of work and juggling kids’ schedules, usually by that day I’m starting to look to the weekend and the chance to relax for a few minutes. The last thing I want to do is think about what to cook.

Grant Thornton, an international tax advisory and consulting firm, offered some tips and reminders for this year’s tax season – and, looking forward, some advice on things to think about as you plan for next year. I found the information on the mortgage interest deduction helpful. There’s also a few items for small business owners included. Take a look:

For your personal finances:

What’s new for 2011?

1. You can deduct interest on a mortgage of up to $1.1 million – For many years, courts and the IRS interpreted the tax code to limit your deduction to the interest on up to $1 million in debt used to buy, build or improve your home, while allowing you to deduct interest on an additional $100,000 in home equity debt only if it was not used to acquire the home. So you could deduct interest on up to $1.1 million in mortgage debt only if $100,000 was not used to purchase or build the home. The IRS recently changed its position and has now ruled that debt used to buy, construct or improve a home can be treated as both acquisition and equity indebtedness. This means you can now deduct $1.1 million in mortgage interest even if all of it was used to purchase or build the home.
2. Payroll tax deduction – The employee portion of the Social Security tax was reduced in 2011 from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent. This lower rate applied all the way up to the Social Security wage limit of $106,800, and employers reduced withholding accordingly. If you’re self-employed, your self-employment taxes were also lowered from 15.3 percent to 13.3 percent on income subject to Social Security. But this reduction does not affect the deduction for self-employment taxes on your 2011 tax return.

Self employed or running a small business? Use the upcoming tax deadline as an opportunity to also evaluate your retirement program

I worked for a large company for more than a decade and during that time was religious about contributing to my 401(k). So when I struck out on my own and started my business, it was important to me to set up a system that continued those regular retirement contributions.

It was one of those times when I realized how much I had taken the big-company infrastructure for granted. As a business owner, there are several options available, and each one offers different features from either a tax perspective or an administrative one. My goal was to first find the best plan for my immediate situation, and understand the nuances of any tax or investment issues, and then come up with a course of action for retirement planning that could grow as my company grows,

With the tax deadline just a month and a half away, it’s time to re-assess retirement plans so that you can take advantage of any contributions and other benefits your program may offer, whether you’re self-employed or work for a large company.

For small business owners, that assessment may also mean investigating whether the plan you have still fits your business needs. Consider this: A recent Fidelity survey of more than 600 small business owners who already offer SEP-IRA, SIMPLE IRA or Self-Employed 401(k) plans found a significant lack of understanding among owners of the plans they currently have.

What are your plans for this year's tax refund?

According to a recent poll by TD Ameritrade, of the more than half of Americans who expect to receive a refund on their taxes this year, 63 percent plan to save or invest at least part of that money.

In addition to saving or investing, many said they would pay down debt, and some said the refund would go towards paying for necessities such as food or utility bills. Only 14 percent of respondents planned to splurge on luxuries, according to the survey of more than 1,000 adults, TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. said.

What do you plan to do with your refund? Tell us in the comments section below.

As a follow up to yesterday’s story about love and money, here are some tips for couples to think about when managing money together, and some common mistakes to watch out for, from Irvin Schorsch III, founder and president of Pennsylvania Capital Management, which has about $620 million under management.

Tips:

Create a Common Vision: Couples cannot plan for the future if they can’t decide on what their future will hold. Will both spouses work? How many children does a couple anticipate on having? Does either spouse wish to go back to school for an advanced degree? What do they envision retirement to look like? The sooner those questions are answered, the better off the couple will be.

Delegate: Once a financial “game plan” is put into place, it’s important to to determine which spouse will handle the variety of financial responsibilities within a household. Tasks/projects should be given to the spouse who is best suited to them, so that each spouse feels they’re contributing effectively.

Maximize All Contributions: Does one spouse receive a handsome employer match to any 401(k) contributions? If so, it’s important to maximize that contribution, even if it means living on one spouse’s income for a period of time. The sacrifice will be well worth it, especially if it helps build a large nest egg earlier in life.

My girlfriend just emailed me to let me know she was engaged. Absolutely thrilled for her, and great timing given that it’s Valentine’s Day week!

Hearing her news of course brought me back to memories of my own engagement, and the lessons that I’ve learned after almost 14 years of marriage. As I sat to write this week’s column, I thought about how, not surprisingly, we often hear that money is one of the biggest sources of tension in a relationship. And I asked myself, if I were to give a new couple advice on how to handle this, what would I say?

If I had to change one aspect of the financial planning we did early in our marriage, it would be to find a financial manager with whom I felt my husband and I could develop a true give-and-take rapport. We waited until after we started having a family to find someone, and while in the grand scheme of things that’s still relatively early, my advice would be to start sooner.

Why? “Time is the biggest ally,” Irvin Schorsch III, founder and president of Pennsylvania Capital Management, told me recently when I interviewed him about, fittingly, the issue of love and money. “The biggest source of conflict is starting too late” in creating a common financial lifeplan, he said. “Couples that get a late start need to save more to catch up.”

Participants in Fidelity 401(k) plans inched up the amount they were willing to save for retirement last year, bolstered by employer contributions and the rising acceptance of Target date funds, the Boston-based financial services company said.

Boston ranks among the most expensive cities in the U.S. to watch the Super Bowl, according to an analysis of average monthly television charges for cable and satellite services.

If you work for a company with a pension plan that uses Fidelity Investments for its record keeping, you may be able to access some new online tools for understanding and managing retirement.

Fidelity, which provides pension plan services to 108 companies, announced a new online video library that helps pension plan participants better understand their benefits, and how to incorporate them into an overall retirement plan. The videos explain such topics as the difference between a 401(k) plan and a pension, and how pension benefits grow. Located in the Pension & Tools Learning section of Fidelity's NetBenefits site, the videos also cover vesting and retirement eligibility so that people can learn how to integrate their pension into a retirement income strategy.