In doing my taxes with Taxcut.com I noticed that without my investments (not totalling anywhere near $750,000) the tax credit was very small, but once I put in my investments it came up to the full amount of $3500. I don't know what crazy logic is behind it but, it was interesting to notice. As a guess, generally speaking the rich have a lot of investment income and the poor have only working income, so like many other tax breaks passed in the past 6 years perhaps that was its goal.

A little-known trick is that you can make contributions to many types of investments this year as though you made them last year, for tax purposes. You're missing out on the interest/appreciation you would have made, but depending on how the numbers work out, you may dodge a lot of taxes via the loophole. Give it a shot - I did my best to not pay a dime for this war, may as well do yourself a favor and keep your money out of it too.

Prius 2006, bought September 14: