The tax and personal finance experts at PriceWaterhouseCoopers have written a top-notch guide to tax planning. They write clearly, presenting sensible ideas for minimizing your tax bill in plain English. They even discuss several strategies for reducing the alternative minimum tax. Handy checklists and five chapters on year-end strategies makes this a first-rate book for people looking to be more active in planning their taxes.
Best Book on Tax Planning
The 2008 Guide to Tax and Financial Planning does one thing superbly well: it discusses the main strategies for reducing your federal income taxes. The experts at PriceWaterhouseCoopers have assembled top-notch strategies to minimize your taxes and plan your finances with confidence. At the end of every chapter, the authors provide an Idea Checklist covering all the important tax strategies outlined in that chapter. These Idea Checklists are fantastic, and can help you focus your tax planning efforts.The authors also provide a concise overview of estate planning. Their summary of the important estate planning issues and discussion of various strategies is a welcome relief in an area notorious for its complexity.
Also welcome is not just one but five chapters on year-end strategies with one chapter devoted to the special considerations of minimizing the alternative minimum tax. The authors even provide a checklist of tax moves to make in January to get the most out of your tax planning.
Not Much Help for Traditional Financial Planning
The book is designed to help people minimize their taxes. That's the main advantage and disadvantage. Why do I say it's a disadvantage? Two reasons. First, this book is not designed to help you prepare your annual 1040. For that, you should consider the excellent tax prep help provided in JK Lasser's Your Income Tax or Taxes for Dummies. Secondly, every financial decision involves more than just looking at the tax consequences. The title of the book includes "financial planning," but the authors provide little guidance on traditional financial planning topics such as managing investments, whether it makes sense to buy a house, and so forth. The PWC Guide to Tax and Financial Planning is solidly focused on explaining reducing taxes.Who This Book is For
The book is designed for individual taxpayers who have a solid grasp of their financial situation and are looking to minimize taxes around their investments, education savings, homebuying, charitable giving, small business taxes, and estate. This book is especially recommended for taxpayers facing the alternative minimum tax.PWC Tax Guide Publication Information
Full Title: PricewaterhouseCoopers 2008 Guide to Tax and Financial PlanningAuthors: Michael Kennedy, Mark Nash, and Brittney Saks
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Publication Date: November 2007
Pages: 252
Binding: Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-470-13970-7
