Like President Donald Trump, rich Americans often deploy sophisticated tax avoidance strategies to maximize their wealth. Not to be confused with tax evasion, which is illegal, tax avoidance is entirely legal, even if many view it as unfair.

A sweeping New York Times report published Sunday revealed numerous tax reduction strategies used by Trump. The top 1% of American taxpayers account for about 34% of misreported income, according to a study published in the National Tax Journal.

Here are some of the most common tax avoidance strategies deployed by the wealthy:

Growing wealth through investments

It's much harder to avoid taxes on your paycheck than on your investments.

In general, the federal government taxes regular wages at higher rates than investment income. The long-term capital gains tax rate maxes out at 20%, and the highest income tax rate is 37%.

In other words, if you make a salary of $1 million, the government keeps $370,000. If you make $1 million on stocks or similar investments, the government keeps $200,000.

Selling assets at strategic times

Taxes on assets such as stocks and real estate investments aren't owed until they are sold. That helps people such as Jeff Bezos, the Amazon CEO, founder and richest person in the world, grow their wealth rapidly while avoiding a huge tax bill. Then they can be strategic about when they sell. ...