I intend to (legally) pay no income tax in retirement. Zero.
Standard deduction for mfj is 12.6k of tax free income.
Personal exemptions 4k each for you, spouse, and each child including college students. Another 16k of tax free income for a family of four.
Plus 1k child tax credits per child. Credit, not deduction.
LTCG are tax free if you show under about 75k in taxable income. All contributions to taxable investment accounts come out tax free. All Roth money comes out tax free.
Between these options, rental property depreciation, and the American opportunity and lifetime learning credits, I expect to keep my Roth ira pipeline funded at zero percent taxes due.
I'll still be stuck with sales tax, gas tax, and property tax.
You may pay zero fed income tax, but I suspect the trade-off will be paying college tuition. College kids can be your dependent, if you pay more than 50% of their support. I have found that if they live on campus (pay inflated living costs) and have scholarships and loans, they are effectively supporting themselves, in the eyes of the IRS at least. No dependent for you, no AOG for you, they claim it (after also claiming taxable scholarships as income).
The Roth pipeline is an excellent tool, but it is counterproductive from a FAFSA POV - it increases your income, lowering aid. I've been crunching the numbers for a while, you can optimize only one or the other, not both, it seems.
The CTC is also excellent, especially when your state partially matches it, like mine does. However, it ends at age 16. How old are your kids? When they are little, that seems far off, but it comes sooner than you think. I'm down to only one under 16 now, of five kids. We've had 5 figure refunds (funding our Roth IRAs), but my projections for FIRE/empty nest might have us paying taxes, definitely state taxes.
Just pointing out that you have to project based on future circumstances, too. You will not be a family of four forever.