As in it's something that people seem to think based on no real evidence.
Wealthy individuals have greater spending flexibility and access to things like trusts, asset relocation to no-tax locations, deductions, etc.
In '09, 35K households with income over $200K reported 0 tax liability [1].
[1]http://www.businessinsider.com/some-of-the-wealthiest-pay-no...
Also, there are restrictions on how you carry forward losses and how much you can deduct in later years.
edit: I think the issue is you're being nuanced about the connotations of "accounting games" (I mention this downthread and argee that some tactics are straightforward.) the user [tiler] above, responded as if the recession explains how 35K people with $200K+ income had 0 tax liability, which is silly.
Right?
[1]http://www.forbes.com/sites/beltway/2013/09/05/how-some-high...
1) Earn most of your income in a foreign country so you pay taxes there instead of the US.
2) Earn most your income from tax exempt bonds.
Anyone can do this. You don't need a fancy accountant. Just either:
1) Move to a foreign country and get a job there.
2) Buy a bunch of tax exempt bonds.
These aren't people with high paying jobs somehow magically not paying taxes on them. So, like I said: "largely a myth".
You seem to be getting hung up on whether there's anything "novel" about a subset of tax avoidance schemes and not mentioning trusts or other tax schemes disproportionately used by wealthy individuals such as offsetting income with high medical costs or moving assets to lower-tax jurisdictions.
FWIW, the IRS study in the article referenced breaks down these expenses for folks without worldwide income.
They also won't actually save you any money. With the former you'll just be paying taxes to a foreign government instead. With the latter you'll get a lower rate of return than you would for buying other bonds.
I didn't mention "trusts or other tax schemes" because the Forbes article you linked to didn't mention them. It didn't mention them because those aren't actually ways to get out of paying taxes. That is, as I said upthread, largely a myth.
You bring up medical costs so I'll touch on those as well. People don't get sick or injured and pay lots of money for medical treatment to avoid paying taxes. Certainly one can debate whether such expenses should result in a tax reduction but we, as a country, have currently decided that they have in most cases. Again this doesn't constitute "accounting games." They are, again, very straightforward deductions available to all. Keep in mind though that you do have to spend the money on medical care instead of taxes though. So you won't have saved any actual money to spend out a house or a new iPad or whatever.
In reality, things are actually fairly straight forward when it comes to our taxes and most of the time if you're earning money you're paying taxes. If you aren't, it's generally for a pretty good reason.