I recently attended a tax planning seminar, and they included an excellent summary write-up of the common tactics that taxpayers can use to reduce their taxable income and hence their federal tax obligation.

The tips break down into three broad categories:

1. Ways W-2 employee wage earners can reduce income.
2. Ways business owners can reduce income.
3. Other tax savings techniques.

Obviously, the list is not exhaustive, and the suggestions are situationally dependent. I think the information is worth sharing because it highlights the types of issues I speak about with my clients when preparing their taxes.

Some tactics to consider are:

1. Increasing elective deferrals and contributions to qualified plans.
2. Increasing contributions to HSAs.
3. Increasing contributions to IRAs, if not phased out.
4. Converting taxable compensation into nontaxable fringe benefits.
5. Changing qualified plan to defined benefit plan to increase the deducible amount of the retirement plan contribution.
6. Shifting income to children.
7. Maximizing expense allowances and bonus depreciation.
8. Making use of exclusions of gain with like-kind exchanges.
9. Using installment reporting, if available, on sales of property.
10. Making charitable contributions directly from an IRA.
11. Contributing to a donor-advised fund to bunch or frontload charitable contributions.
12. Making use of tax-exempt interest income.