I'm just following the rules and guidelines as found in state and federal publications downloadable from the net, the same as you, and I assume, everyone else here does.
The biggest 'loophole' that we take advantage of is maxing out the contributions to my employer supported 401k, something economic advisors have been telling American workers for years that they should be doing, if they have the opportunity. And of course I deduct the interest paid on our home, again, something that I suspect most all homeowners here is also doing. And then there are the charitable deductions that we made to our church, my alma mater, several museums, etc.
So yes, I guess we used some 'loopholes', a total of THREE to be exact, if you can call them that, as mentioned above. That's it, pure and simple.
BTW, I do my own taxes, using a spreadsheet that I wrote myself. Took me all of a couple of hours this afternoon to organize my records (all of our income and expenses are accounted for using Quicken Personal Finance Software), entering the data into the spreadsheet, downloading the forms from the state and federal tax websites, filling them out, printing and double checking them before signing and finally mailing them (they're going out in the morning mail).
As for paying my "fair share", when it was all done and tallied, we're paying more taxes, as a percentage of our income, then a recent presidential candidate admitted to paying, so I'll take that as a yes...
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