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As President Obama begins his first term, you may be starting to count on some of the middle-class tax cuts he promised during his campaign.

Sorry to be the bearers of bad news, but our attitude is, “We’ll believe it when we see it.”

The truth is that we were all going to have to pay more taxes no matter who was elected for two reasons: the heavy bill necessary to fix the financial tsunami that has hit America; and the reality of huge budget deficits, projected by the Congressional Budget Office to be $439 billion this year and $431 billion in 2010.

Although it’s way too early to predict exactly which federal taxes are going up and by how much, the direction is UP because the slower the economy, the fewer the tax dollars that come into the government.

Let’s talk about easy and quick steps to take now so you can minimize the tax bite after Obama takes office.

Next: #1: Consider municipal bonds.