Curious - at what income level would people here recommend to work with a tax strategist/planner? I asked ChatGPT and said household income over 100k which seemed like a low bar.

I am well over 100k household (below 400k), but don't feel like I have any real unique income streams - mainly W2 work, Stocks, commissions. Should I be working with a tax strategist to lower my annual tax burden?

I would think that anything that can be done by someone who is a W-2 earner they probably already know about or should (401k, HSA, etc.).

i dont know if they could advise on this - but wondering if I should be consdering things like looking to buy an investment property for example (and taking depreciation on said property), selling investments to take advantage of capital gains/losses, etc...

there's no free lunch.

as a W-2 employee at your income level, I would guess the standard deduction will be in play.

OP...

Just my opinion. Putting as much as you can into your Roth IRA would be my first recommendation.

i actually itemized this past year!

I max my Roth IRA, and also historically (last few years) have maxed my work Roth 401k

Do you mean a Financial Advisor?

As mentioned above there isn't much you can do as a w2 employee besides decide between Roth and traditional 401k.

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I max my Roth IRA, and also historically (last few years) have maxed my work Roth 401k

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Awesome.

sirhc said:

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I asked ChatGPT and said household income over 100k which seemed like a low bar.

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Is this how people get information now?

We do tax planning for folks like you but it is more limited than when you are a business owner or have a farm etc.

For you it would be maximizing charitable giving strategies if applicable. Like donating stocks to a donor advised fund instead of cash. And maybe doing multiple years of giving at one time.

Harvesting gains and losses if applicable.

Make sure you are withholding enough but not too much.

Consider whether doing Roth conversions make sense for you being in the 20ish percent tax bracket. I probably would a little each year especially when the stock market goes down.

Things like that.

But really real estate is only tax efficient in that you can use expenses to offset income from the real estate. But unless you become a real estate professional you can't use losses against your day job.

You could try to find a way to pay your kids and fund roths for them if that makes sense.

Hope that helps!

The strategy is obviously a big part of the equation. Trusting the person making the plan and having them help you stay on track with the plan is equally important. I'm not there yet with ChatGPT and the like.

Robo Advisors have been around for a while, so it's not anything new.

I think of it as similar to a personal trainer. Anyone can find workout plans online, but having someone to keep you accountable is a big benefit.

super helpful - thank you