Say what you will about presidential hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., but it looks like she's getting some good tax advice.
Warren released her 2018 tax return Wednesday. She filed jointly with her husband Bruce H. Mann, a professor at Harvard Law School.
The two reported total income of $905,742 and paid total taxes of $230,965, according to the return.
The couple didn't get a refund. Rather, they owed the IRS $24,477 in taxes. They weren't on the hook for underpayment penalties.
"I don't think there's anything wrong with her owing," said Tim Steffen, CPA and director of advanced planning at Robert W. Baird & Co. "She makes estimated tax payments throughout the year, and we tell people that this makes the most sense — there are no penalties there."
Here are a few tax planning takeaways from the senator's 2018 return.
Stack up on charitable giving 
Like everyone else, it was Warren's first time filing under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the new tax law that went into effect in 2018.
The overhaul of the tax code raised the standard deduction to $12,000 for single filers ($24,000 for married filing jointly), eliminated personal exemptions and limited itemized deductions, including a $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions.
Schedule A of Warren and Mann's tax return shows that the two paid a total of $78,068 in state and local income, real estate and personal property taxes. Of that amount, they could only claim $10,000.
"She makes estimated tax payments throughout the year, and we tell people that this makes the most sense — there are no penalties there." -Tim Steffen, CPA and director of advanced planning at Robert W. Baird & Co.
The couple made a charitable gift of $50,128 by cash or check, which lifted them over the $24,000 standard deduction threshold they would need to meet in order to itemize.
"She lost on a big state tax deduction," said Lance Christensen, CPA and partner at Margolin Winer & Evens. "But the concept of bunching is important with respect to charitable contributions."
"Bunching" charitable donations is the practice of lumping in several years' worth of giving into one year so that you can itemize on your tax return. The following year, you might take the standard deduction instead.
It's not clear whether the Warren household bunched their giving to beat the hurdle, but it's a viable strategy for charitably inclined taxpayers.
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Warren made a total of $55,000 in retirement plan contributions in 2018, according to the tax return.
That amount is the total maximum contribution self-employed individuals were able to put away into a SEP IRA or a solo 401(k) in 2018 (it's $56,000 for 2019).
This retirement plan contribution is tax deductible for self-employed individuals, and it allows savers to sock away cash and have it grow on a tax-deferred basis.
"Anyone who is self-employed should be taking advantage of the ability to take a deduction for contributing to a retirement plan or at least look closely at it as a strategy to defer taxes," said Christensen.
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