Tax Planning Strategies

All legal tax reduction strategies reduce to variations on three levers: avoid, defer, or reduce the rate applied to income. Avoidance means structuring activity so that income either is not realised, is excluded from gross income, or is offset before tax arises. Deferral means postponing when tax…

Cash donations to qualifying 501(c)(3) organisations are tax-deductible for itemizing taxpayers — but cash is almost never the most tax-efficient way to give. Donating appreciated securities — stocks, mutual fund shares, or ETFs held more than one year — is significantly more powerful. The donor…

Employees and their employers each pay 7.65% of wages in FICA taxes: 6.2% for Social Security (up to the wage base, $168,600 in 2024) and 1.45% for Medicare. Self-employed individuals — sole proprietors, single-member LLC owners, freelancers, independent contractors — pay both the employee and…

The federal estate tax applies to the taxable estate of a deceased US citizen or resident above the applicable exclusion amount. In 2024, that exclusion is $13.61 million per person — meaning only estates larger than this amount owe any federal estate tax. The top marginal rate is 40%. For a…

TCJA's higher standard deduction means most taxpayers no longer benefit from itemizing year-to-year. But for taxpayers whose potential itemized deductions hover near the standard deduction threshold, alternating between itemizing and taking the standard deduction — "bunching" — can produce better…