<prompt> Human: My wife and I will make about 150k combined this year. We both claim married-0 and found out we will still owe over 6000 in taxes this year. We dont have any mortgage interest to write off this year, hopefully next year. Is there much we can do about it by years end?We have literally nothing to write off. I have a child with my ex-wife but I let her claim our kid. Any ideas? If so, what kind of impact would they have?  <response>: If all youre worried about is having a tax bill either stash an extra 500month aside in your own bank account or go to HR and change your W4 so they hold an extra 500month for you.As a more general answer to your question though, unless youre trying to pay less taxes as a form of protest you really dont want tax deductions to pay less taxes. Everything that causes you to pay less taxes ends up with you having less in your pocket. Im assuming what you really want is more money for yourself in the end. What others have said is true, take advantage of your 401k and IRA accounts, and donate to charity. If you have a house with a mortgage go ahead and write off the interest. This isnt your end game though, you dont want deductions. Heres why.Lets say you have a mortgage and you pay 1kmonth in interest, thats 12kyear. Assume youre in a 25 tax bracket youre not but this is easy math. That means you get to deduct the 12k from your income on your taxes. At 25 that means you save 3k in taxes. Youve paid 12k to save 3k. So when its all finished youre still out 9k. Thats not really what you want. If you could pay off your house and your only reason for not doing so was the tax deduction it doesnt work in your favor. Donating to charity works the same way. If the only reason youre donating is to get a tax break youre going to have less money for yourself in the end. Dont misunderstand me though, if youre going to donate to charity or have a mortgage payment certainly take the deduction. I think its important for people to give to charity too. 