High income salaried employees – How do you reduce your taxes?

Question

If you are a W2 wage earner who earn a lot of money through salary, RSUs, etc, could you please share your favorite tax saving strategies? What are some legal ways to save on tax and build wealth? Any references to articles, videos, podcasts?

JohnFen · Accepted Answer

I do a 401k (and investing in my businesses, but that's neither here nor there) plus whatever my accountant recommends.I don't have any problem with the idea of paying taxes, so I don't put a large amount of effort into reducing my tax bill. There are more beneficial uses for my time and energy.

roland35 · Answer

Just fund your 401k and pay your taxes! Count yourself lucky!

hiAndrewQuinn · Answer

I'm not a W2 wage earner, but for more general investment advice, https://www.bogleheads.org/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/Bogleheads/ are always my first recommendation to anyone starting to get into this.And max out that Roth IRA! Its growth potential is unreal, it's the best investment vehicle most salaried workers have in their lives and if it wasn't capped at $6500 a year or whatever it would be the financial equivalent of a game breaker.

dyingkneepad · Answer

Choose 3 countries. Live 121.6 days of the year in each. Don't pay any taxes because you're not a fiscal resident anywhere.

simantel · Answer

I haven't done it, but am genuinely curious about the tax savings of moving to Puerto Rico. From what I understand, you only need to spend 183 days a year there, so you could leave for hurricane season.

nothercastle · Answer

Max out 401k HSA and all other tax deferred accounts. After that it&rsquo;s really complicated game playing

idontwantthis · Answer

I lived outside of the US for five years and claimed the FEIE. That&rsquo;s about $120k deduction each year. Obviously comes with its own complications and I didn&rsquo;t do it just for the deduction.

aristofun · Answer

maximize all your tax defer accounts (pension etc.), postpone cashing out stocks to lower income periodsWhat else there todo (within legal domain)?

High income salaried employees – How do you reduce your taxes?

If you are a W2 wage earner who earn a lot of money through salary, RSUs, etc, could you please share your favorite tax saving strategies? What are some legal ways to save on tax and build wealth? Any references to articles, videos, podcasts?

I do a 401k (and investing in my businesses, but that's neither here nor there) plus whatever my accountant recommends.
I don't have any problem with the idea of paying taxes, so I don't put a large amount of effort into reducing my tax bill. There are more beneficial uses for my time and energy.

Just fund your 401k and pay your taxes! Count yourself lucky!

Choose 3 countries. Live 121.6 days of the year in each. Don't pay any taxes because you're not a fiscal resident anywhere.

I haven't done it, but am genuinely curious about the tax savings of moving to Puerto Rico. From what I understand, you only need to spend 183 days a year there, so you could leave for hurricane season.

Max out 401k HSA and all other tax deferred accounts. After that it’s really complicated game playing

I lived outside of the US for five years and claimed the FEIE. That’s about $120k deduction each year. Obviously comes with its own complications and I didn’t do it just for the deduction.

maximize all your tax defer accounts (pension etc.), postpone cashing out stocks to lower income periods
What else there todo (within legal domain)?