If it were common for rich people to pay 44 percent of their income in tax, it wouldn't be a newsworthy story.
The only techniques that apply to income taxes are the "borrow against stock technique" (has a big caveat about a rich person who lost in court when he used it) and the deferred compensation example (which is also zero liquidity; presumably you pay all of the income taxes when you actual get the money).
The article makes a better case for ways to avoid death taxes or real estate taxes though.