I've always preached the most important hour of our time as tax advisers is that last one in December when we finalize year-end tax planning. Here are some of the more sophisticated issues your tax adviser will bring into play:

INCOME AVERAGING

It isn't how much income you report, but at what marginal tax rate. Farmers are the only taxpayers who can use income averaging and dump current income back to rates applicable to the prior three years. But that takes some complex analysis, occasionally involving amending a base year before averaging some portion of the current year.

CHARACTER MATTERS

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