How to Pay Zero Taxes 2003 : Your Guide to Every Tax Break the IRS Allows! [Paperback]

Jeff A. Schnepper (Author)

Book Description

Series: How to Pay Zero Taxes | Publication Date: December 10, 2002

Includes all the latest updates and changes to the 2002 tax code Publishers Weekly called it "a can't-miss title." The New York Daily News praised it for "pushing the envelope" and taking "a consumerist approach that's helpful during all the other months before next April." Best of all, more than half a million people have consulted How to Pay Zero Taxes for solid guidance on paying less to the IRS. This fully updated 20th edition contains all the latest tax changes and delivers more tax-saving tips than any other guide. It outlines the easiest, most practical strategies consumers can use to lower their taxes this year, next year, and beyondby focusing on hundreds of legal ways to preserve pretax income and profit.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Might very well be the IRS's worst nightmare.... If there's a tax break allowed out there, It's in here. "New York Daily News

From the Back Cover

Your income is yours! Keep it with hundreds of tips and techniques that preserve it through exclusions, credits, deductions, shelters, smart investments, and more!

Make 2003 the year you pay zero taxes!

Fully updated to include all the latest tax law changes, How to Pay Zero Taxes outlines the easiest, most practiced strategies you can use to lower your taxes this year, next year, and beyond. Hundreds of thousands of savvy taxpayers from all walks of life--business owners, professionals, retirees, homeowners, and parents--have relied on this trusted guide to find every legal tax break. Now you, too, can take advantage of all the deductions and exemptions the IRS doesn't publicize--but allows! How to Pay Zero Taxes guides you through the ins and outs of every IRS-sanctioned tax-saving strategy available for preserving income. From converting personal expenses into business expenses to obtaining tax credits for dependent care to setting up tax-slashing trusts to avoiding or surviving an IRS audit, Jeff Schnepper's guide comprehensively covers more deductions than any other tax book all conveniently organized in six fast-access categories: exclusions, credits, "above -the-line" deductions, "below-the-line" deductions, traditional tax shelters, and super-tax shelters.

In the 2003 Edition you will find coverage of:

• $3,000 deduction for higher education expenses
• Increased dependent care and "kiddie" tax credits
• Health insurance deductions
• Coverdell Education Accounts for elementary and secondary school expenses
• Increased IRA and retirement plan limits
• New retirement tax credits
• Mortgages and points
• Job-hunting expenses
• New above-the-line deductions for teachers
• Home equity loans
• Travel and entertainment expenses
• Real estate trusts
• Theft and casualty losses
• Educational and ROTH IRAs
• Moving expenses
• Business use of your home
• Divorce and separation costs
• Capital gains rules
• Family partnerships
• Tax-free bonds
• Gifts and bequests
• The elimination of estate tax
• And much more!

Jeff A. Schnepper is the author of several books on finance and taxation, including How to Pay Zero Estate Taxes and all nineteen previous editions of How to Pay Zero Taxes. He is a financial, tax, and legal advisor to the Transamerica sales force and runs a full-time accounting and legal practice in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Mr. Schnepper also writes a column for Microsoft's online personal finance website, MSN MONEY, and is tax counsel for Haran, Watson & Company.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 624 pages
• Publisher: Mcgraw-Hill; 20th edition (December 10, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071407367
• ISBN-13: 978-0071407366
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,593,447 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This is a good book...BUT there are better ones available, January 29, 2003

By 

"taxjack12" (Miami, Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Pay Zero Taxes 2003 : Your Guide to Every Tax Break the IRS Allows! (Paperback)

Being a CPA and attorney,I am a saavy financial person and read a lot of tax and financial books.

How To Pay Zero Tax has been out for quite a while and is actually one of the first tax planning books that I have read. It is fairly comprehensive and actually better than most of the tax planning books out there. However,there are two main problems with it though for the average reader.

First, it is literally much too much. It has over 600 pages and some of it isn't clear. Mr.Schnepper tries to be all things to all people, which doesn't really succeed. I guess a point in all directions is a circle. In fact, despite its length,some of the discussion on topics tends to be too brief.

The second problem that has been noted by other reviewers is that this book hasn't be kept up to date. I guess Mr. Schnepper is "resting on his laurals."

Let me be clear about this: it's not that I disliked this book. It is just that there are a number of other, more up to date and better written tax books that I would recommend instead such as Lower Your Taxes: BIG TIME by a Mr. Botkin.

52 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Book as Dense as Taxes Themselves, December 3, 1999

By 

Christopher J. Alexander, Ph.D. "Christopher ... (Rio Rancho, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: How to Pay Zero Taxes: 2000 Edition (Paperback)

Schnepper's book is not without its nuggets of ideas. However, to lead the reader to believe he or she will pay zero taxes is a bit misleading. This book is much too wordy and dense for the average reader. It's best to give it to your tax advisor and let them sort through the material. Schnepper devotes much of the book to case law, which is of more interest to tax attorneys than general consumers. Particularly frustrating is that the index must be from previous editions of the book. As I tried to reference various topics, the pages cited were not where the information I needed was. In short, this book is not particularly user-friendly and excessive attention was devoted to random topics.

57 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This book is for people earning a minimum of $250,000, March 21, 2000

By 

Joe Covert (Wetumpka, Alabama) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Pay Zero Taxes: 2000 Edition (Paperback)

This book was a disappointment because it did not show meenough in tax savings to justify the cost of the book. I gave it a 1star because a zero rating was not any more available for reviews than paying zero taxes is for 'regular' taxpayers.

I feel the author is more of an IRS, tax attorney and financial planner advocate than a taxpayer advocate.

The book has many time consuming, complicated and expensive techniques for reducing taxes. The author fails to communicate the likely prohibitive cost of availing oneself to these 'tax saving' methods.