Facing new, higher rates on ordinary income and capital gains, wealthier taxpayers have the most to gain by pursuing a tax-efficient investment strategy, says Maria Bruno, a senior investment analyst at Vanguard. When it comes to minimizing your tax bill, your annual tax return is just a short-term tactic. You can also have accounts that have a combination of pre-tax and after-tax dollars. We’ll get to the intricacies and the exceptions later. For mutual funds, you need to consider the «turnover rate.