Short-term capital gains and ordinary non-qualified dividends are taxed like income, so it’s awfully difficult to avoid taxes on those.
Long-term capital gains (LTCG), realized when you sell an asset you’ve held for more than a year, and qualified dividends (QD) are a different variety. The tax treatment on them can be much more favorable.
It can also be not so favorable. Typically, even though these taxes are generally lower than income tax, you can expect to pay at least 15% on them, and as much as about 37% if you happen to make millions and live in California.
By all means, earn what you can while you’re accumulating wealth, and avoid turnover in your taxable account (buy and hold). The time to keep taxable income low is in retirement.
Tax gain harvesting is a strategy to utilize in early retirement. If you are in the fortunate position of having taxable income below the threshold above ($77,200 for joint filers in 2018), take some capital gains to reset your cost basis and pay no tax.
When you donate appreciated assets with long-term gains, capital gains taxes aren’t paid by the giver or receiver. Win, win.
You can do your best to invest in equities that don’t return much to investors beyond growth in the intrinsic value of the stock. Some companies pay no dividends.