I hate to be the bearer of bad news. However, it looks increasingly probable — due to the likely reelection of President Obama and his plans to allow the Bush-era tax cuts to expire — that the low tax rates investors have enjoyed for the past nine years on dividends and long-term capital gains (15% maximum) will be gone at the end of this year.

We can bemoan this prospect or we can act now to minimize its impact. I prefer the latter course, and you can be sure the nation’s billionaires are doing the same.

Here are two things you should do, starting this month, to prepare for (and sidestep, to the extent you can) the coming tax shock:

Use ongoing strength in the stock market to book gains as well as losses for tax purposes.

Next year, the tax on most investors’ gains will rise to 20%. Furthermore, joint filers with adjusted gross income above $250,000 will owe an additional 3.8% Medicare surtax on interest (not including tax-exempt muni bond interest), dividends, rents, royalties and capital gains — among other income.

If you’re sitting on appreciated securities you think you may sell within the next two or three years, I encourage you to consider bringing the disposal forward into 2012. But don’t run up your tax bill unnecessarily. Comb through your portfolio and sell some positions you may be holding at a loss. By offsetting part of your gains with losses, you’ll keep your total tax to a reasonable minimum.

Where practicable, shift your higher-dividend stocks into tax-sheltered accounts.

Obviously, if you need dividends to live on, this tactic may not make sense. However, many  investors own stocks yielding 4%, 5% and more, and don’t immediately need the income. The (after-tax) dollar value of the dividends we receive from these stocks will drop sharply when tax rates suddenly jump from 15% to as high as 39.6%. In an IRA, the income can accumulate tax-free until withdrawn — and in a Roth IRA, forever.

What doesn’t get nicked?

A few types of investments will emerge from the coming tax shock relatively unscathed. Income from REITs and most bonds (other than municipals) are already taxed at high “ordinary” rates, so prices of these assets shouldn’t be significantly affected. DoubleLine Total Return Bond Fund (MUTF:DLTNX) is a solid buy regardless of the tax outlook.

By the same token, a safe real estate vehicle such as Government Properties Income Trust (NYSE:GOV) will throw off the same 7% yield (before taxes) as before. The shares should continue to trade in more or less the same range that they do now.

I suspect that one investment will attract a much wider following as the tax picture comes into clearer focus. Master limited partnerships allow you to avoid all, or nearly all, current taxes on your income — and many of them, particularly the pipelines, still toss off very rewarding yields.

Buckeye Partners (NYSE:BPL) is one example. Founded in 1886 as an arm of the Rockefeller Standard Oil empire, this partnership earns its bread by transporting refined petroleum products (gasoline, jet fuel, diesel, kerosene, etc.) across a 6,000-mile pipeline network stretching from Missouri to Maine. Buckeye also owns more than 100 fuel-storage terminals and operates an additional 2,800 miles of pipeline under contract for major oil and chemical companies.

This Steady Eddie business has raised its cash distribution 31 quarters in a row — even during the 2008 financial crisis. Current yield: 6.9%. In fact, BPL’s yield today is higher than it was at year-end 2002 — even though the price of the units has soared 55% in the interim. Contrast that great value with Treasury bonds, where yields have sunk to historic lows.

For Now, this investment has zero taxes.

Partnerships like Buckeye do create extra paperwork at tax time. (They’re also unsuitable for retirement accounts because MLPs can generate what’s called Unrelated Business Taxable Income.) You can eliminate both of those concerns, though, if you buy special “i-units” issued by two prominent MLPs, Enbridge (NYSE:ENB) and Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMP).

I-units, originally designed for institutions, pay no cash distributions and produce no immediately taxable income. Instead, you receive a quarterly stock dividend. If you sell i-units (including those you received as a dividend) after you’ve held them a year and a day, any gain is treated as a long-term capital gain. Presumably, even in 2013, long-term gains will continue to be taxed at a lower rate than ordinary income.

The two existing series of i-units are Enbridge Energy Management (NYSE:EEQ) and Kinder Morgan Management (NYSE:KMR). Current yields, based on the market value of the units issued in the most recent stock distribution, stand at 6.5% and 5.8%, respectively.

In recent sessions, both EEQ and KMR traded near the top of their 52-week price ranges, probably because tax-savvy investors are trying to sneak aboard before the crowd has its “flash of recognition” and the rush for tax-favored investments begins. I would wait for a minor pullback before buying these units. But don’t wait too long — the election is getting closer by the day, and the day after will be too late.