In this topsy-turvy environment, you might be better off turning the conventional year-end advice on its head if your bracket will be higher next year, says John Hewitt, chief executive of Liberty Tax Service, a national tax preparation firm based in Virginia Beach, Va.

FORBES: Year-End Tax Planning in the Age of the Fiscal Cliff

Mr Dell added that the new touchscreen products would cost more to produce than their non-touch equivalents, suggesting they should fall within the price bracket Dell targets, rather than the super-low end of the market that it had opted out of.

BBC: Dell looks to future tablets as consumer sales slump

Using the data from 1913 through the end of 2011, the correlation between the maximum marginal income tax bracket and total Federal receipts is a negative 0.50.

FORBES: Do Tax Cuts Increase Government Revenue?