A series from the Tax Shop
“Anyone may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury.”
— Judge Learned Hand, Helvering v. Gregory, 1934
There is no cure for income tax. These are the therapies.
Welcome. We’re glad to serve you.
Every client wants to pay less tax. Most of what is sold under that heading is either illegal, imaginary, or built for someone else’s situation. What actually works is a shorter list than the internet suggests, it is written down in the Code and the regulations, and nearly all of it depends on who you are: a strategy that saves a retiree $4,000 does nothing for a family with toddlers, and the reverse.
So this series is organized by patient. Nine pages, each for a stage of life or a kind of income, each with eight to ten therapies: what it is, the 2026 dose, the condition that makes it hold up, and the full article where the detail lives. At the end of each page, the side effects (what the therapy costs or risks) and, for the preparers at the Tax Shop, the contraindications (the phase-outs, cliffs and interactions where one therapy reduces another). Choose your page. Most households belong to two or three.
The child tax credit and the Trump account, day camp and the FSA, head of household, the earned income credit, Colorado’s credits, a teenager on the payroll, the kiddie tax, 529s, adoption, and the W-4.
The American Opportunity Credit four times, making room for it before the 529 pays, scholarships allocated to room and board, grandparent 529s under the new FAFSA, loans, and whose return the student goes on.
The exclusion used more than once, the two windows after a move or a death, the refinance, PMI again, bunching, 14 days tax-free, converting to a rental, the 1031 route, and Colorado’s senior property tax breaks.
The 0% bracket, harvesting without a wash, holding past a year, asset location, employer stock and the NUA election, options and RSUs, giving stock instead of cash, QSBS, the 3.8% line, and the step-up.
Your own retirement plan, the S election at the right income, keeping QBI, hiring family, the home office, the 6,000-pound line, the HSA, Colorado’s PTE election, timing across December 31, and the paperwork that keeps the rest.
Catch-ups including the new one at 60, the Roth conversion window, the 55 rule, Social Security timing, the IRMAA lookback, the HSA until Medicare, NUA, pension or lump sum, and Colorado’s subtraction at 55.
Giving from the IRA, staying under the senior deduction line, gains at 0%, the order to spend accounts, RMD timing and December withholding, beneficiaries after the ten-year rule, conversions after 73, the medical deduction, long-term care, and Colorado’s $24,000.
The last joint year and the two after, the house inside the window, recording the step-up, the spousal IRA decision, converting while the brackets are still joint, the QDRO, the children, Form SSA-44, and Colorado’s PERA and homestead rules.
Every deferral, the backdoor and mega backdoor Roth, bunching into a donor-advised fund, the PTE election, entity and salary, the cash balance plan, real estate and the professional route, QSBS and opportunity zones, charitable tools, and the cliffs.
Three tests. It has to be legal, which means it is in the Code, the regulations, a revenue procedure, or a case the IRS lost, and we cite which one in the preparers’ notes. It has to be worth doing, which means it saves more than it costs in fees, risk, or lost flexibility for a typical client in that group; a strategy that saves $300 and costs an appraisal is not on these pages. And it has to be something you can actually do, this year or next, with the income and assets you have; a therapy that requires owning a business is on the business owners’ page, not the retirees’.
What is not here: anything that depends on the IRS not noticing, anything that requires a promoter, anything with the word “secret” in it, and the captive insurance, conservation easement, and micro-captive arrangements that the IRS lists as abusive every year. If a strategy you have been offered isn’t on these pages, ask us why before signing.
↑ Back to topClients ask about these every season. They were real once; the 2017 act suspended them and the 2025 act made the suspension permanent.
April is too late for almost all of this. The return we prepare in April reports a year that is over; the therapies on these pages are applied in the year itself, and most of them in its last six weeks, when the year’s income is nearly known and there is still time to act. The decisions that belong in November and December: the retirement plan contribution, the Roth conversion amount, gains and losses to harvest, the charitable bunching, the vehicle or equipment purchase, the Colorado PTE payment, the RMD withholding, and what gets invoiced in January. The decisions that belong at a life event: a new job (the W-4), a retirement (the window), a death (the step-up, the IRA, SSA-44), a divorce (the house, the QDRO, the children), a sale (the exclusion, the exchange). The decisions that belong at open enrollment: the HSA, the dependent care FSA, the 401(k) percentage and the Roth option.
Our organizer and the 2027 tax calendar on needtoknowtax.com list the dates. The December meeting is the one we would rather have than the April one.
↑ Back to topColorado’s flat 4.40% rides on federal taxable income, so every federal therapy saves 4.40% more. A few items are Colorado’s alone and appear on the relevant pages: the pension and annuity subtraction ($20,000 at 55, $24,000 at 65, per spouse) and the $75,000 / $95,000 Social Security cliff; the CollegeInvest 529 subtraction; the subtraction for interest on U.S. obligations; the PTE election; the state EITC, child tax credit and child care credit; the senior homestead exemption and the PTC rebate; and the add-backs that take some of it away (other states’ municipal interest, the QBI add-back for high earners, the overtime deduction). Full article: Colorado Income Tax: The Highlights.
↑ Back to topThe one that describes your biggest source of income or your current stage: a W-2 couple with children starts with Families; a couple at 60 starts with Near Retirement and Investors; a business owner starts with Self-Employed and, above $400,000, Higher Earners. Most households belong to two pages.
No. Each one is in the Code, the regulations, or a case the IRS lost, and the preparers’ notes on each page cite the authority. The risk in most of them is documentation: a log that wasn’t kept, an election that wasn’t attached, a form that wasn’t filed. The side effects and contraindications sections say where that is.
The ones that live on the return, yes, as part of preparing it. The ones that require a decision during the year (how much to convert, what to buy, what to give) need a short meeting in November or December with the year-to-date numbers. That meeting is the most valuable hour we spend with most clients.
Because none of those is deductible, and we would rather tell you here than on examination. Commuting is personal; work clothes are deductible only if unsuitable for ordinary wear; meals are deductible at 50% only for business travel or a business meeting with a documented purpose. The therapies on these pages are the ones that hold up.
How the series is built, and what to check in December
Pick your page, read the ten, and mark the ones you aren’t doing. Then call before December with the list. Most clients find three or four that apply, one of which they had never heard of, and the December meeting turns the list into numbers. The tax code is not going to get simpler. The therapies are how you live with it.
Call 303-734-1040 or stop by the office in Lone Tree. We’ve been reading the footnotes for Douglas County and the Denver area since 1969.
Figures reflect the 2026 tax year as currently published and are rounded for readability. Items marked (verify) are to be confirmed against IRS or Colorado DOR sources before the figures freeze in December. Last updated October 15, 2026.
