Defined benefits may take the sting out of tax time

Tax time. The only time of the year when being a profitable business can be unpleasant. No one likes to write a big check to the government, and everyone wants a magic pill that will eliminate or reduce the amount of taxes paid.

In my tax practice, I am often asked how to reduce taxes. Generally, this happens after I deliver the bad news to a client. They know that somewhere in the ether are tax ideas that if used properly, can eliminate all of their tax liability.

There really aren't that many magic pills out there. The tax code is continually modified to snuff out the magic, and as soon as a loophole surfaces, new law is enacted. The tax code did not grow to more than 74,000 pages by accident.