You know you're going to be spending; here are a few tips to save

This may be asking a lot, but you should consider setting aside an hour or two between shopping trips and holiday parties to make some year-end financial moves.

Since you are planning to spend a fair amount over the next few weeks, how about carving out some time to take care of any money that will be left over?

There is a potpourri of things you should consider by year-end. Say you got married this year and haven't quite found the time to change your W-4 to increase your allowances to get more money in your pay rather than let the government keep it. Same is true if you had a baby or bought a home. Adjust your W-4, or employee's withholding allowance certificate, if your personal situation has changed so as to affect your taxes.

You should fill out a new form to determine how many allowances to take, which is based on the itemized tax deductions (mortgage interest, charitable gifts, deductible medical expenses, etc.) or credits you expect to claim on your tax return. Please note that the number of allowances you take may be different from the number of exemptions you claim on your tax return. The W-4 has a worksheet to help you figure this out. I suggest you use the IRS online withholding calculator at www.irs.gov.

Although it's not quite time to file your 2006 return, there are some things you can do to improve your tax situation before year-end.

Expecting a bonus? If you have had a good year with lots of extra income, you might want to ask your employer to pay any remaining bonus or year-end bonus in January. Or if self-employed and you want to reduce your taxable income for the rest of the year, have your client or customers send your payments after the first of the year. And no, you can't defer being taxed on the money by not depositing the check until January.

Are you older than 70 1/2 with an IRA? Then check whether you are required to take a minimum distribution. This doesn't mean you have to withdraw all your money. The required withdrawals are based on your life expectancy. According to IRS rules, you must begin pulling money from your IRA no later than April 1 of the year after the year you reach 70 and six months. After that, you have to take yearly distributions by Dec. 31.

Don't miss this deadline. If you do, you get slapped with a 50 percent tax on the money you should have withdrawn.

There's another deadline you should keep in mind. Be sure to submit claims -- with receipts -- for any pretax money you have set aside in a flexible spending account, or FSA, by Dec. 31. These accounts allow you to pay for medical expenses or dependent care (day care, before- and after-care, or summer camp) with pretax money. You contribute to your FSA by electing an amount your employer will withhold from your pay. You don't pay federal income tax, Social Security taxes, and in most cases state and local income taxes on the portion of your paycheck that's sent to your FSA.

Participating in an FSA is not an easy thing to do because you have to put away money while paying for these expenses on an ongoing basis. But it reduces your taxable income, and that is the benefit.

However, you could lose money if you are not careful. One year I nearly forgot to put in a claim for money in my dependent care account. Under the IRS's "use it or lose it" rule, if you do not use all the money in your FSA for expenses incurred during the year, you forfeit the unused balance, which cannot be carried over.

Now, however, you may have a few extra months to procrastinate over your FSA. That's because the IRS allows employers to give employees a grace period of 2 1/2 months to pull money from their FSAs. That means you may have until March 15 to apply for money in your FSA. For people who have put too much money in, the grace period offers extra time to incur expenses. But don't assume you have a grace period. Not all plans allow for it.

Finally, if you haven't done so already, order copies of all your credit reports from TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax before year-end. Consumers are allowed one free credit report every 12 months. Just go to www.annualcreditreport.com. This is the only website that you should use.

Michelle Singletary is a columnist for The Washington Post.