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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
CHAPTER 1
Tax Insanity
CHAPTER 2
Is It Legal?
CHAPTER 3
How Our Tax System Works
CHAPTER 4
Exclusions—Tax-Free Money
A Alternatives to “Earned Income”
1. Hospitalization Premiums
2. Group Life Insurance Premiums
3. Group Legal Services Plans
4. Accident and Health Plans
5. Employee Death Benefits
6. Merchandise Distributed to Employees on Holidays
7. “Expenses of Your Employer”
8. Meals and Lodgings
9. Employee Discounts
10. Workers’ Compensation
11. “Cafeteria” Plans and Flexible Spending Accounts
12. Dependent Care Assistance Program
13. Employer Educational Assistance
14. Employee Awards
15. Clergy Housing Allowance
16. Miscellaneous Fringe Benefits
B Donative Items
17. Gifts, Bequests, and Inheritances
18. Scholarships and Fellowships
19. Prizes and Awards
20. Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs)
C Investors
21. Interest on State and Municipal Obligations
D Benefits for the Elderly
22. Public Assistance Payments
23. Social Security and Other Retirement Benefits
24. Annuities
25. Sale of Your Home
E Miscellaneous Individual Exclusions
26. Carpool Receipts
27. Damages
28. Divorce and Separation Arrangements
29. Life Insurance
30. Qualified State Tuition (§529) Programs
31. Your Home—The Mother of All Tax Shelters!
32. Disabled Veteran Payments
33. Exclusion of Income for Volunteer Firefighters and
Emergency Medical Responders
34. Unemployment Benefits
35. Homeowner Security
36. Reimbursed Costs to Parents of Children with Disabilities
37. Wrongful Conviction and Incarceration
38. Restitution Payments
39. Frequent Flier Miles
40. Hurricane Sandy
41. Cancellation of Indebtedness
42. Medicaid Payments for Foster Care of Related Individuals
43. ABLE Accounts
44. Foreign Earned Income Exclusion
F Schedule of Excludable Items
CHAPTER 5
Credits—Dollar-for-Dollar Tax Reductions
A Estimated Tax and Withholding Exemptions
B Credits
45. Refundable The Earned Income Credit
46. Excess Social Security Tax
47. The Child and Dependent Care Credit
48. Credit for the Elderly or Permanently and Totally Disabled
C Special Credits
49. Work Opportunity Credit (Formerly Targeted Jobs Tax Credit)
50. Welfare to Work Credit
51. Research Tax Credit
52. Orphan Drug Tax Credit
53. Adoption Assistance
54. Hope Scholarship Credit
55. American Opportunity Tax Credit
56. Lifetime Learning Credit
57. Child Tax Credit
58. Disability Credits
59. Health Insurance Credit
60. Saver’s Credit
61. Small Employer Credit
62. Electric Vehicle Credit
63. Credit for Residential Energy Efficient Property
64. Energy Saving Home Improvement Credit
65. Hybrid Vehicles Credit
66. Telephone Tax Refund
67. First-Time Home Buyer Credit
68. “Making Work Pay” Tax Credit
69. Plug-in Electric Drive Vehicle Credit
70. Plug-in Electric Vehicle Credit
71. Conversion Kits
72. Treatment of Alternative Motor Vehicle Credit as a Personal
Credit Allowed against AMT
73. Small Business Health Insurance Credit
74. Small Business Health Care Credit
75. Foreign Tax Credit
76. The Premium Tax Credit
77. Employer Credit for Family and Medical Leave Benefits
CHAPTER 6
“Above the Line” Deductions
A Deductions for Adjusted Gross Income
78. Trade and Business Deductions
79. Employee Business Expenses of Actors and Other Performing Artists
80. Employee Business Expenses
81. Alimony
82. Interest on Qualified Education Loans
83. Retirement Plan Payments
84. Self-Employment Tax
85. Health Insurance Deduction for Self-Employeds
86. Moving Expenses—Old Law
87. Clean Fuel Vehicles
88. Deduction for Qualified Higher Education Expenses—Tuition and Fees
89. Legal Fees
90. Classroom Materials
91. Medical Savings Accounts (Archer Medical Savings Accounts)
92. Health Savings Accounts
93. Sales Tax Deduction on Motor Vehicles
CHAPTER 7
“Below the Line” Deductions
A The Importance of Filing Status
B Tax Planning with Itemized Deductions
94. Medical Expenses
95. Income Taxes
96. Real Property Taxes
97. Personal Property Taxes
98. Interest
99. Mortgage Insurance
100. Charitable Contributions
101. Casualty Losses
102. Theft Losses
103. Miscellaneous Trade and Business Deductions of Employees
104. Job Loss Insurance
105. Travel Expenses
106. Transportation Expenses
107. Meals and Entertainment Expenses
108. Gifts
109. Reimbursable Employee Business Expenses
110. Educational Expenses
111. Limit on Itemized Deductions
C Schedules of Deductions
112. Medical Deductions
113. Deductible Taxes
114. Charitable Deductions
115. Casualty and Theft Loss Deductions
116. Miscellaneous Deductions
117. Employee Miscellaneous Deductions
118. Investor Deductions
CHAPTER 8
Traditional Tax Shelters
A Deferral and Leverage
119. Real Estate
120. Fees in Public Real Estate Partnerships
121. Oil and Gas
122. Equipment Leasing
123. Single-Premium Life Insurance
124. Cattle Feeding Programs
125. Cattle Breeding Programs
126. Tax Straddles
127. Art Reproduction
128. Noncash Gift Shelters
129. Municipal Bond Swaps
B How to Analyze a Tax Shelter
130. Getting Out of the Tax Shelter
131. Master Limited Partnerships
132. Abusive Shelters
CHAPTER 9
Super Tax Shelters
A Family Shifts
133. Unearned Income of Minor Children
134. Outright Gifts
135. Clifford Trusts
136. Interest-Free Loans
137. The Schnepper Shelter: Gift Leasebacks
138. The Schnepper Deep Shelter
139. Family Partnerships
140. Family Trusts
141. The Schnepper Malagoli Super Shelter
142. Employing Members of the Family
143. Author’s Delight
B Running Your Own Business
144. Your Home
145. Your Car
146. Meals and Entertainment
147. Travel and Vacation
148. Gifts
149. Advertising
150. Deductible Clothes
151. Creative Deductions—Busting the IRS
152. Medical Premiums
153. Borrowing from Your Company
154. Miscellaneous Corporate Advantages
CHAPTER 10
Investment Planning to Save Taxes
155. Short Sales
156. Broad-Based Index Options and Regulated Futures Contracts (RFCs)
157. Wash Sales
158. Premiums on Taxable and Tax-Exempt Bonds
159. Original Issue Discount (OID)—Taxable Bonds
160. Original Issue Discount (OID)—Tax-Exempt Bonds
161. Market Discount
162. Municipal Bond Swaps
163. Employee Options—Nonqualified
164. Incentive Stock Options
165. Year-End Stock Sales
166. Fund Strategies
167. Dividends
168. Tax-Exempt Income
169. Old Prices
170. Alternative Minimum Tax for Individuals
171. U.S. Savings Bond Exclusion
172. Madoff Losses
173. Collars—Tax Free Lock in Your Gain
CHAPTER 11
Last-Minute Tax Planning
174. Defer Taxes
175. Accelerate Expenses
176. Accelerate Special Deductions
177. Dependents and Personal Exemptions
178. Phase-out of Exemptions
179. Timing Strategies
180. Retirement Plans
181. Individual Retirement Plans (IRAs)
182. H.R. 10 or Keogh Plans
183. Marital Status
184. The Goldinger Deferral
CHAPTER 12
More Tax Changes
A The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
B Small Business Jobs Act of 2010
C The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization,
and Job Creation Act of 2010
D American Tax Relief Act of 2012
E Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014
F The ABLE Act
G More Changes
H The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017
I The Budget Deal Passed on February 9, 2018
CHAPTER 13
How to Avoid/Survive an IRS Audit
APPENDIX A
Cost Recovery/Depreciation
APPENDIX B
Business Use of “Listed Property”
APPENDIX C
Auto Leases
INDEX
