16 Minutes of Brutally Honest Tax Advice

Today, I'm going to share the tax advice with you that no one else is going to tell you. There are so many scams out there, influencers, wannabe tax advisors that are giving bad tax advice. Over the last 25 years, as a CPA attorney, best selling author, podcaster, radio show host, and Main street business owner myself, I have had it up to here. I am sick and tired of people getting bad advice. And I'm gonna set the record straight right here with some myths and, and what really works when it comes to tax advice. All right, number one, llc, save taxes. Bull. Oh, yeah, I can't say that, can I? So many people think they've got to set up an LLC to save taxes. Now, LLCs are great. LLCs can give us the opportunity to elect an S corporation later. They make us feel legit. We get a bank account, we're like, yeah, I'm in the biz, I'm llc. But it does not change your tax deductions. If you don't have a legitimate tax write off, you don't get to take it. Whether you have an LLC is irrelev. Example, I have a lemonade stand. Okay, I buy lemonade, I buy ice, I buy sugar, I buy a table, I buy signage. I get to write all that off. Oh, I have an llc. I could write off more. Wrong. You get to write off the expenses for your business. Now, the LLC again can help you expand, grow, build all those logical things that come with a LLC structure. But it's not about saving taxes. So let's go in with our eyes wide open and set up that LLC when we need it. Number two, tax strategies don't make a bad deal. Good. I see so many clients chasing a deal just because they're going to get depreciation or they're going to get some write off or they're going to be able to deduct something. When it's a stupid, dumb idea. Can I say that too? Okay. When it's a stupid, dumb idea to begin with, I'm sorry, but let's not let the tax tail wag the dog. Now, I'm all for finding killer tax strategies, but let's be smart first with our dollar, let's make good investments, let's look for good ro, and then if we can couple it with the tax strategy, then bam. Number three, cost segregation is oversold. Now, if you haven't heard of this, it's a strategy of having an engineer report going to one of your rental properties, residential or commercial, and creating a report to depreciate the property faster. Love it. But if you don't qualify for the depreciation expense, it's a waste of time and money. I swear, I see so many different real estate influencers out there talking about cost segregation. Best next thing to slice bread if you're not a real estate professional, if you don't have material participation, if you don't meet one of the exemptions, the cost segregation is worthless. So be careful getting sold. A strategy that can work really well, but if you don't qualify, it's worthless. Number four, the S Corporation. There are so many accountants that are scared of their own shadow. And they tell business owners that their reasonable salary needs to be way up here. And too many business owners are paying fica. The F word. Spit on it. We hate fica. And too many business owners are not pushing down their salary to a reasonable comp level with their S corporations. And their accountants are forcing them to take all this payroll. They don't have to. All right, accounts. I know I'm going to piss you off out there, but let's get real. Quit playing IRS comp and get on the same side of the table with your clients and actually plan. Read every case on reasonable comp. Push the envelope. It's okay. In 25 years, 10,000 consultations, I have never had a client get audited or have to pay additional FICA because they took too little of salary. Holy crap, CPAs. Strap a pair on and let's get some real planning done. And number five, if I hear another person walk into my door and say, oh, Mark, I've got a C Corporation, they're wonderful. I can write off everything under the sun. What the. What did you just. From under. The truth. C corporations are for big corporations. If you want to sell stock, you want to go public. C corporations are not built for the small business owner. But some people that are trying to oversell this strategy will say, you can take additional write offs or wipe out all your income and the C corp tax rate is lower than the individual tax rate. But what happens time and time again is that business owners make money in their C corp. And then all of a sudden they're like, well, I don't want to pay double tax, so I'll take more salary. Okay, now you're paying more fica. Well, if I take a dividend, I've got to pay double tax. I don't want to do that. I ran out of write offs. And they get into a vicious cycle. Then they borrow from the C Corporation. There's A classic one. And then the day of reckoning comes, and I've had so many clients on Zoom or across the desk for me in tears because they've got to claim an extra 2, 3, 500 grand in income from embedded retained earnings in a C Corp because some dumb ass sold them a C Corp to begin with. Please. If someone's got you in a C corp or you're getting sold a C Corp, get a second opinion from a real tax advisor. Next. Oh, the classic oh, if only we could wish it. So I'm gonna live in California and set up a Nevada entity, or I'm gonna live in New York and have a Florida entity. Because if mysteriously I set up an entity in Nevada and I say I live in Nevada, California's not gonna tax me. Oh, doesn't that sound so neat and special? Oh, it's just like a warm blanket. Mm. It's crap. It does not work. You cannot set up an entity in another state and think the state you live in isn't going to tax you. Get over it. And they, these promoters, they add this as insult to injury. They sell you a C corp in Nevada. It couldn't be any worse. Please, people. If you live in a state that has high taxes, enjoy the ride, or move out of the state, it is impossible to try to claim you live in another state. You think you're the first one that thought about this? I'm sorry. It is a lie. It is a myth. And state tax planning can work. You want to sit down and really strategize. You might be moving, but we might save a lot in taxes. Lots of opportunity, but don't get sold something that sounds too good to be true. It's not. Oh, and I love my crypto community. I love you and all you crypto influencers out there. Keep talking it up. I'm all in. I'm buying crypto. I've got, like, three different wallets here I'd love to show you on my phone, but please do not believe anybody when they say, oh, the IRS isn't going to tax me, or, oh, the IRS can't see my wallet. It's called the blockchain. It's public. You think the IRS doesn't know that? Oh, oh, and here's a good one. Well, Mark, there's a crypto tax rate. It's 20%. What planet are you on? There is no crypto tax rate, people. If you're making money trading cryptocurrency, and God bless you, I love it if you're doing deals in the metaverse. If you're dealing with NFTs, if you're doing crypto mining, if you're doing staking, there are taxes to be paid and it's okay, let's make some money. But go in with your eyes wide open and if you lie on your freaking tax return, the number one question on the tax return, have you done any transactions in crypto in the last year? You say no, and you sign that return. Buckle up. Don't bend over for the soap. Now here's another one. I'm going to piss some people off here. I'm just going to say it. Some people say, well, I really need a CPA to save taxes. Now, there are some great CPAs out there. There's also some crappy ones. There's some great enrolled agents out there. There's also some uneducated crappy ones. Oh, by the way, did you know that there's great contractors out there? Bad dentists, good kitchen remodelers, bad interior designers. Just because they're a CPA doesn't make them walk on water, people. You've got to find a real tax advisor. Someone that knows the myths, knows the truths, is willing to talk about it and get on the same side of the table as you and strategize together. I love tax advisory. I have a tax advisory training program for all of you professionals out there that are about ready to throw something at the screen. You hate me already. I've got you. I love tax planning. There is so much we can do out there, but it's not going to come from some boring shoot me in the head CE conference that's been regurgitated for the last nine years. Let's start thinking outside of the box and talking about strategies to actually move the needle. And let's get in a community where we can all learn together and strategize and push the envelope honestly and ethically. So find a tax advisor that knows what they're doing and don't get hung up on credentials or if they live down the street or are related to your family. Let's find the right advisor. Next influencers. Isn't it cool? You get online, you make money talking about things you love to talk about. I'm doing the same thing. I love talking about tax and legal. I make money online. I am an influencer amongst nerds. I own it. I love it. I want to be the king of the nerds. I want to be the king of freaking making money. I want to be the king of freaking saving money. Why not? And someone's going to pay me. Someone might even gift me something. Oh, but that's not taxable, Mark. It's just a gift. Uh huh. Yeah. If you take a gift and in return do something for them like unbox it, open it, or show it on your platform. That is an exchange called bartering. That is in the IRS tax code. It is now tax fraud if you do not claim that gift as income. Now, if someone wants to give you something and you don't talk about it and keep it, knock yourself out. That's not taxable. But the minute you show it on your platform, it is taxable. Well, I didn't have a contract with him. I never promised to do it. But you did it. So good luck under audit if you think you can keep all those gifts. Well, Mark, how's the IRS going to know? I don't know. Don't you have a social media platform where you show all this crap? What do you think the IRS is looking at? They have task forces for this. Why do you think they're auditing influencers now? Because the influencers aren't claiming the income. Get an advisor who knows what they're doing and can save you some money. Because there's a lot of write off influencers should be taking. Let's talk about it next myth. A 401k is Wall Street. A 401k just holds stock. The only thing I can put in my retirement account is what Wall street is willing to sell me. Wrong. Lies, misinformation, disinformation, whatever. The Wall street is good for them is what they're going to tell you people. There's been a strategy around for over 45 years now. It's called self directing. You can direct your retirement account into what you know best. You can invest it in a small business, in a syndication, in notes, in real estate, in crypto. It's called self directing. Wall Street's not going to tell you this. Wall street doesn't want you to pull your money out of your IRA and invest in what you know. And by the way, there's no tax, there's no penalty. It's taking your IRS at a brokerage in Wall street and putting it with a trust company that calls you on day two. Hey, what do you want to invest in? Oh, I want to invest in my brother's small business down the street. All right, let's do it. Boom. Now you're investing in what you know. That's called self directing. And you can get 10, 20% or better. ROI. Investing in strategies you're familiar with rather than some ETF, stock, bond, or mutual fund. And who knows where the hell it is? Let's invest in what we know, turn the tables on Wall street, take control of your retirement and build a real future. Investing in what you know, not what. Wall Street's just willing to sell you. Okay. And the number one brutal truth about saving taxes in America, which many advisors are not going to tell you. And that is if you don't have a little side hustle, a little side gig, a rental property, which qualifies as a business. If you don't have some other source of income that I can take deductions against, I got nothing. Bring me your W2. Good luck. Sorry. So sad. Cannot save you taxes. I love a client with a day job. Married couple, one with a day job, the other one with a small business. I love corporate America. I love that you've got benefits, but you gotta give me something to work with. Help me help you help me help you. And how you help me is giving me that cute little 1099. Let's think doing tutoring, doing consulting, maybe doing some catering on the side. An online business, selling a product or service, driving Uber, doing some sort of technical expertise that you've learned your entire career. And now you get on upwork and side gig it. Side hustle it. I can oftentimes wipe out that entire amount of income. Tax free. Or build it in a Roth or 401k for future investments. Tax free. Give your accountant something to work with. If you want a tax advisor, let's bring something to the table that we can actually advise on. This volume you got is a W2. I'm plugging it in and game over. All right, now that you've heard 20 minutes of brutally honest tax advice, and I'm sorry, I get fired up. I'm passionate about this. I love the American dream, I love Main street business, and I love saving money. Do you know it's easier to save money than make money? But no one's willing to talk about it. I'm so grateful that you watch this video. Now, let me tell you, there's two camps out there. You may be a tax advisor or want to be tax advisor, an enrolled agent, a CPA trying to break into that advisory role. And you're like, man, I need a community. I need a tribe. I need more strategies. Check out my advisory program links down below. Do a demo. Check it out. 80 strategies, 12 modules, all the topics you need to build your business. Engagement letters to Pricing to advisory expansion and leveling up. Check it out. Now, the other camp out there, it's you business owners struggling, frustrated, trying to find a good advisor. And like, what the hell? I find these unique spotted white leopards, these unicorns. Well, we're out there and I would challenge you as well. Come check out our program. Check out this advisory program. We have so many business owners as well. They're like, I'm going to captain my own ship. I want to learn these strategies so I can be on the same side of the table with my tax advisor. It's okay. And when you're hanging out with all these tax advisors, guess what? You're going to find a tax advisor that speaks to you. And you can find a tax advisor in our network and also get trained in the same program. People, this is a tax deduction. It's affordable, and it's about building wealth. We want to talk about making money. Where are we talking about saving money and bringing the two together? And don't even get started with me on asset protection, privacy. We have a whole module on real estate, cryptocurrency, estate planning, financial advice on just making good financial decisions, people. The list goes on and on. All of you, advisor or not, you're the captain of your own ship. And I know my program is going to save you more in taxes than it costs to join and then some, because you're going to be on a path for future success. Please check out the Main Street Tax Pro certification with Mark J. Kohler, where I'm changing the world, I'm changing the industry, and we're doing it together in the Tax Pro community. And one more word for my accounts out there. This does not have to be complex. We can keep this simple. There are strategies out there that are easily implemented and understandable. When we have clarity, when we have a community where we can bounce these ideas off of and a platform where we can learn them in an organized format. I invite you to schedule a no pressure, no cost consultation with someone on my enrollment team to understand how this could benefit you. We want to hear what you're struggling with. We want to hear your challenges. It could be a variety of factors where we have multiple solutions that could make a huge difference in your life. Please make that call. This demo will be something you'll never regret, and I hope to see you at our next training.