How to Avoid Tricky Tax Traps:

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Trust the Pros, Not Your Friends

By Robert Celaschi

     Here’s a hot tax tip from the Sacramento region’s accountants and financial planners — a single, overriding, money-saving strategy for 2005: “Call us first.”
     Nothing makes them pound their heads on their ledgers more than a client who bounces into the office and says, “I just put 50 grand into this great tax shelter my neighbor told me about.”             
     “People take tax advice from their friends, but they don’t know the situation their friends are in,” says Darla Colson, a principal in charge of the tax department at Gilbert Associates in Sacramento.
     Among the ambitious economic plans outlined by President Bush immediately after his re-election is a major thrust at cleaning up the national tax code, while also reshaping Social Security. His tax-reform objectives are expected to include closing special-interest loopholes.            
     All the more reason to stay connected to your tax adviser and plan early in laying out tax strategies for 2005. Meanwhile, changes in the 2004 tax code are significant enough to justify holding hands with a tax expert.  

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