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SAN ANTONIO
MEDICINE

Tax Strategies For Physicians

By Jeffrey W. Bryson, Attorney

With calendar year 2022 quickly coming to an end, now is the opti- if all itemized deductions add up to more than the standard deduction.
mal time to develop a strategy for maximizing permissible year-end de- The most common expenses that qualify as itemized deductions in-
ductions in order to minimize tax exposure and ensure a tax-efficient clude mortgage interest and charitable giving (discussed below).
outcome. Too often physicians either overlook some of their personal
and business tax deductions or misunderstand how best to take full ad- Maximizing Charitable Donations
vantage of the deductions available to them. This article describes some In order to claim a tax deduction for a charitable contribution, gen-
year-end tax planning strategies for 2022 and later years. erally it is necessary to forgo the standard deduction in favor of item-
ized deductions. Physicians who previously utilized charitable
Background donations as part of their overall itemized deduction planning, may
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) made several significant not be able to benefit from making smaller charitable donations in
changes to the individual income tax, including reforms to itemized 2022 as a result of changes made by the TCJA.
deductions, an expanded standard deduction and lower marginal tax One possible workaround is to “stack” charitable donations in a sin-
rates across brackets. gle tax year. For example, assuming married physicians wish to donate
One significant change made by the TCJA was an increase in the $15,000 annually to a favorite charity and wish to maximize the benefit
standard deduction to $25,900 for 2022 and $27,700 for 2023 for mar- of these deductions. Instead of giving $15,000 in 2022, the couple may
ried taxpayers filing jointly. Itemized deductions can only be claimed consider giving $15,000 of the cash bequest on January 1, 2023 and

36 SAN ANTONIO MEDICINE • December 2022