How can I reduce income tax?
1) TelecommuteYou can telecommute for an entire calendar year (or multiple calendar years), spending less than 31 days in the United States each calendar year.You can then claim the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion on the basis you fail to pass the Substantial Presence Test. This will allow you to exclude the first $97,600 (2022) of income you actively earn performing work while physically present in a foreign country from your U.S. taxes, using Form 2555.Note, your income may become taxed by the foreign country in which you are working. You can stay under the radar and/or choose countries that don't tax residents on their foreign income (e.g. Thailand, Singapore, Panama, Costa Rica). Choosing a destination or destinations with a low cost of living will also help.---------------------Alternatives given your added comment (unable to telecommute):Most all other tax strategies presume you have excess income (beyond your current expenses), as you can only defer taxes on income you don't spend and do something tax-efficient with. You can't have your cake and eat it too.2) Retirement/Estate PlanningYou can defer taxes on your excess income by stashing it away into retirements accounts, as follows:$17,500/year into a 401(k).You may be able to have your employer reduce your salary and match that $17,500 401(k) contribution. Total: $35,000/year.Set up a Charitable Remainder Unitrust (CRUT) and you can contribute with no limit, and withdraw well before you are into retirement age. However it works like an annuity (you can't decide how much to take out), and the balance goes to charity when you and all beneficiaries are dead. You'd probably want to start out with a Net Income Makeup Charitable Remainder Unitrust (NIMCRUT) that converts into a regular Charitable Remainder Unitrust at some future time or event. Note however that CRUTs can have a bad habit of converting capital gains into ordinary income given the worst-in-first-out (WIFO) tax treatment of withdrawals.---------------------3) EquityIf you have stock options in your company, you can start exercising them. This will not save in taxes now, but in the future (you start the long-term capital gains tax treatment). However, there may be risk the equity becomes worthless, and then you have a long-term capital gains loss.If you do exercise options, or have (restricted) stock, you can contribute that to the aforementioned Charitable Remainder Unitrust and deduct a portion of its present Fair Market Value (use the company's latest 409(A) if it's not public), including unrealized capital gain. You can also use the same strategy with public investments you have made that may have unrealized capital gains.------------------4) Startup BusinessYou can bankroll a startup business setup as an LLC or SCorp (electing pass-thru taxation) and deduct your share of the losses.