tax planning

The one thing I love about tax strategy planning is that it never gets boring. This year, 2007, looks to be a very interesting year. That’s because you can throw almost all of your old tax plans out the window if you’re subject to AMT (alternative minimum tax). If your income is over $50,000 for 2007, don’t ignore AMT — you might be subject to it this year.

The best sure-fire way to avoid or minimize AMT is to have a business. And that’s why tens of thousand of people are rushing to start a business before year end. Of course, you have to do it legally — and that’s why I’m featuring what it takes to have a business in the eyes of the IRS so you get all those deductions in this month’s First Class Lounge. There is one more wrinkle to having a business — how do you protect your assets and pay less tax at the same time?

I’ve spent the last 4 years writing books, building websites and developing a massive non-profit fund-raising effort. My company still got requests every day for personalized tax strategies, but for the past 4 years we’ve had to say that I no longer do them.

Something I often see when reviewing client files are very complicated tax strategies that involve moving money from one entity to another. There can be some great tax advantages to these complicated strategies, and I’ve made plenty of similar recommendations.

As the law sits right now, 23 million more Americans will be subject to AMT. Basically anyone making over about $45,000 will have the issue. That’s because one of the “patches” expires this year.

I just started a special 4 part series as part of the online workshops available through First Class Lounge.