Individuals & High-Income Earners

The federal deduction for state and local taxes just got four times larger, but not for everyone. Where your income lands relative to one number now decides how much of it you keep.

A rental's tax story isn't written one year at a time. It's written over the whole time you own it, and most of the chapters that matter are decided before you sell.

Maxing out the 401(k) feels like the finish line. For a high earner, it's the first rung of a ladder most people never climb.

Owing money in April is one problem. Owing an underpayment penalty on top of it is another, and at higher incomes the rules that protect you are stricter than most people realize, especially in California.

Overpaying at higher incomes rarely looks like a mistake. It's an accumulation of small, sensible-looking decisions, each made on its own, that together add up to a materially larger bill than necessary.

One records a year that has already happened. The other decides what the year will be. At higher incomes, confusing the two is one of the most expensive mistakes a household can make, because nothing on the return ever flags it.

The same gift can now be worth noticeably less, or noticeably more, depending on when you give it, what you give and how it's arranged.