I feel left out

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Rock Steady

It's not entirely up to you. If one make's a big stock option gain, one gets taxed hard no matter what, short term, alt min. Then, after paying dues to join the club, one can set up all kinds of tax shelters.

But, looking at any single year for a taxpayer can be deceptive. Part of what I did resulted in overpaying Alt Min. A couple of years later, we had big medical deductions that took our taxable income to zero. Normally that would initate Alt Min, but we had credit towards that. So, we paid no federal taxes that year.

But this was from real losses, real past taxes paid, and real medical expenses. It wasn't exactly the "money growing on trees" scenario of popular myth.

Your right of course, especially when it comes to unearned income or anything other than a straight wage.
I didn't mean to imply you could duck all taxes if you made big money. Just that those who do, will vary greatly in what they actually pay depending on the things I mentioned. It's hard to give 100k to a charity when you only make 20.