Get a Jump on Next Year's Taxes

Unless you're willing to move to Texas or Florida or get rid of the kids (wishful thinking), you're stuck until you start making the big bucks and move out of this AMT purgatory.

If you're in AMT because of a particular event or if you know your situation will change in the future, then there's some hope.

Let's say you plan on exercising some incentive stock options in 2007. You can't really say "ISOs" without saying "AMT" in the same breath, so prepare yourself for it.

In that case, try to defer any deductions that you know will be disallowed under the AMT to 2008. For instance, try to pay your December state and local tax bill in January 2008, or consider waiting until next year to take out that home equity loan because that interest is disallowed under AMT. And then try to push off some miscellaneous itemized deductions into 2008 as well.

Those are just some of the things you can do to save yourself from the AMT ogre. But be sure to talk to a professional for more planning suggestions.

So before you get completely sucked into baseball season, do yourself a huge favor and take a quick peek at your 2006 return. Just a few minutes analyzing it now could save you much more than a few dollars next April.