PERFECTLY LEGAL: 275 Foolproof Methods for Paying Less Taxes

A gimcrack primer--studded with omissions, slips, and downright errors. In a series of breezy questions and equally breezy answers, the authors have their way with income-averaging, child-care costs, ""those wonderful capital gains,"" home-office deductions, tax shelters, casualty and theft losses, travel and entertainment expenses, etc., etc. It's too little about too much. Sometimes even the questions are confusing. A ""taxpayer"" who usually gets large refunds asks for a way to ""reduce the amount of my refund and pay a little more in taxes."" (He's told to increase withholding, which will indeed let him pay more tax--it just won't reduce those troublesome refunds.) Even with set-up questions, the answers are shot from the hip. A lump-sum alimony payment is not ""deductible up to 10 percent of the total."" In the 50 percent bracket the after-tax yield on a taxable nine percent bond is not five percent. Certainly not all the information is wrong, but there is an invariable, insurmountable lack of weight or order.