As I meet with clients throughout the year, I stress the importance of tax efficient planning strategies. I explain that tax efficiency is simply an attempt to minimize tax liability when given many different financial decisions. The tax code offers many ways to reduce your tax liabilities if you know how to use it. Your income can be converted into assets with smart tax planning. The real key to building wealth lies in creating assets.

Summer is the season for tax audits. You may have forgotten all about the tax preparation process of last winter. Realistically, the chances for an individual audit are low - around 0.6 percent or about one in every 160 returns. However, tax preparers advise that it’s important for their clients to be aware of the triggers. Here are the things that the professionals pay attention to as they prepare your tax return:

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act went into effect January 1, 2018. That means that the changes made won’t affect your 2017 tax filing in April 2018. Many of the deductions available to individual taxpayers survived the new tax law and will still be available to you when you file in 2019. Some have been modified. Here’s a checklist of those tax deductions: