So recently I've been thinking about how much paying taxes is going to suck, yea maybe I'm late on the ball.

What are some common and uncommon ways to get tax breaks. Ones I can think of:

IRA
donating to charities
mortages

10/12/2006 9:34:57 PM

Well there's always the option of not making money. Or, just don't pay your taxes...although I hear that ends in jail time.

10/12/2006 9:36:24 PM

yea, i guess we can add moving to a country with very low taxes to the list.

10/12/2006 9:37:16 PM

whatever happened to that movie that was coming out which said there was no written law that required u.s. citizens to pay income tax?

10/12/2006 9:37:44 PM

sell drugs

10/12/2006 9:44:45 PM

run a cash only business

10/13/2006 12:00:46 AM

So, youre 22 years old and you dont already pay taxes?

10/13/2006 12:05:51 AM

1. Sell drugs

[Edited on October 13, 2006 at 12:07 AM. Reason : .]

10/13/2006 12:06:54 AM

^^i'm not sure how you arrived at that conclusion.


to humor your sarcasm, i'm asking about ways to reduce taxes paid.


When I say "going to suck," I'm referring to if/when I'm fortunate enough to be making enough money for it to significantly matter.



[Edited on October 13, 2006 at 12:15 AM. Reason : ads]

10/13/2006 12:13:57 AM

http://www.fairtax.org

write your congressmen

10/13/2006 12:20:10 AM

4. profit

10/13/2006 3:14:46 AM

Get married.
Have children.

(donating to charities)
(mortgages)

I just thought that this would be a good time to point out that anytime you get a tax break it is more than likely the result of having to spend more money on other things.

Kids will remove the phrase disposable income from your vocabulary... but they give tax breaks.
Donating $1000 to charity might bump $200 off your year end taxes.
Paying $7000 in interest on a mortgage might knock a thousand or so off your taxes.

It takes money to make money

10/13/2006 7:12:39 AM

Quote :

"Get married. "

I'm not sure how to type out a buzzer sound for "WRONG" but this isn't likely a tax break for you.
Some things are better for the married, but some things are much worse.

10/13/2006 7:37:59 AM

It's a tax break for me. Unless I hear otherwise.

10/13/2006 7:50:56 AM

it's true except (broad generalization with tons of exceptions) unless the person you marry makes more money than you

10/13/2006 10:01:39 AM

it's more dependent on whether the sum of the two salaries pushes you to the next tax bracket.

if you and your wife both make $60k of taxable income a year, you'd be in the 25% tax bracket if you were both single. If you're married and filing jointly, the $120k of taxable income puts you in the 28% tax bracket. Filing separately as a married couple still puts each in the 28% tax bracket.

There's a large enough overlap where both partners will always pay more taxes as a married couple than single whether you file jointly or separately to make it a fairly common thing, although the majority of married couples pay the same or less taxes than if they were single.

see:

http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/article/0,,id=133517,00.html

10/13/2006 10:46:32 AM

Invent a new religion. Appoint yourself leader of said religion. Gain followers. Never pay taxes to the government again. [/profit]

10/13/2006 10:52:01 AM

401K and IRA

10/13/2006 11:13:10 AM

with your 401k, if your taxable income puts you a few thousand into a given tax bracket, increase your 401k contributions such that your net pay drops you back into the previous tax bracket.

It takes a good amount of number crunching to estimate this at the beginning of the year, but can save you quite a bit in taxes.

You'll also avoid state income taxes on 401k contributions. Then when you're old, you can move to florida, or another state with no state income tax, and then cash in your 401k and not have to pay NC state income taxes on your gains.

10/13/2006 11:46:54 AM

Nicely done Bobby

10/13/2006 11:48:25 AM

They still take out FICA. Sons of bitches.

10/13/2006 12:02:10 PM

Quote :

"I'm not sure how to type out a buzzer sound for "WRONG" but this isn't likely a tax break for you. Some things are better for the married, but some things are much worse."

I'm not sure how to type out a buzzer sound for "WRONG" but this isn't true. Please give me an example where it would be better to be single then married when it comes to your taxes. Its generally a nice tax break because of the lower tax rate. There are some very rare circumstances with higher incomes and lots of itemizations where this might apply but in general it is much better to be married.

10/13/2006 12:04:11 PM

Taxes suck ass.

There goes 1/3rd of my paycheck.

10/13/2006 12:21:37 PM

10/13/2006 12:35:29 PM

^^^

look about 6 posts up from yours.

10/13/2006 12:44:07 PM

^^^^ Did you even look at the tax table ^he posted?

10/13/2006 1:03:26 PM