The 9 Ways to Pay Less Tax: There is Nothing Else But These 9

There are a million tricks to pay less tax—we are just guessing; we didn’t count them—but all these just come down to nine things: the nine ways to pay less tax. There is nothing else but these nine.

To pay less tax you:

1 – Split

2 – Defer

3 – Offset

4 – Move

5 – Offshore

6 – Qualify

7 – Find

8 – Hide

9 – Downsize

That’s all. There is nothing else.

1 – Split

Splitting income is all about marginal tax rates. You move income away from a higher marginal tax rate to a lower marginal tax rate.

2 – Defer

Deferring income is also about marginal tax rates. You move income from a high-income tax period to a lower-income period to hit lower marginal tax rates.

3 – Offset

Offsetting income is about strategically claiming deductions, expenses or losses against your assessable income in the most tax-effective way, often using tax rate margins between entities.

4 – Move

You move your tax residency to a lower tax jurisdiction, for example, UAE, Singapore or Ireland.

5 – Offshore

You offshore operations, income or assets (for example Intellectual Property) to a lower tax jurisdiction.

6 – Qualify

You qualify for a tax incentive. Tax incentives are usually non-refundable, so you only benefit when you have a tax debt to start with.

7 – Find

You find a gap in the legislation or tax treaty – aka a loophole – that doesn’t cover a particular scenario, transaction or income. The problem with loopholes is that they don’t stay open for long.

8 – Hide

Hiding income is about receiving income in a way that makes it difficult to trace. That usually means cash. But it could also – for example – mean channelling income to entities with bearer shares and nominee directors layered across several tax havens.

9 – Downsize

When you downsize your income you pay less tax. This might be a conscious decision – you want to work less. Or it might be unintentional – you get so focused on saving tax that you neglect your business, miss profitable opportunities and waste money just to get a tax deduction.

So this is it.

These are the only 9 ways to pay less tax. There is nothing else. Everything we do as tax agents comes down to these nine things – actually, skip the last two, we as tax agents just work with the first seven.

Makes sense? Reach out when you are ready to pay less tax.

Last Updated on 03 March 2025