Paging Poodlebrain - Personal Tax Planning Literature

I've never had any sort of tax planning guides in my career. It's been mostly accumulated knowledge. I joined the AICPA Tax Section, and I get regular updates on tax developments without having to subscribe to more expensive services. Staying current requires regular reading.

I guess you could start with a Master Tax Guide. It has sections on how to determine taxable income for individuals and corporations as well as checklists of items of income and deductions to consider in your planning. The checklists are pretty comprehensive, so most of the items won't apply. An alternative is to get a 1040 preparation checklist and use it as a guide of things to consider. This will cover the items to consider, or at least give you a starting point.

Then you could invest in some tax planning software to prepare actual plans. Most of the packages are fully compatible with the popular tax return preparation software, so you can transfer information from one to the other to improve efficiency.

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