Three ways investors can minimize their tax payments

It’s tax day in the United States and time to start thinking about how to make savings next year.

It’s Tax Day in the United States. Some Americans are scrambling to get their documents in on time, while others are figuring out how to pay what they owe or enjoying a return of cash from the IRS. Either way, it’s fair to say that filing taxes is stressful business. This year, it’s estimated that taxpayers will spend $104 billion on out-of-pocket expenses associated with preparing and submitting tax forms, according to a recent report by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation. They’ll also spend an estimated 6.55 billion collective hours preparing their documents to comply with tax laws. “We have built ourselves a house of cards that is unlike anything else in the developed world,” said Bill Harris, the former CEO of Turbotax and founding CEO of Paypal. “The tax code is so complex that it takes a tremendous amount of time and money for many people to file,” he told CNN. It’s particularly difficult for investors, he said, who have to report their earnings and losses from the market to the IRS. “If I had a magic wand I would create a dramatic and massive reform of the tax code and make it hugely simpler,” he said.