5 Unique Strategies Tax Pros Have Never Heard Of

Hey everybody. My American dreamers, small business owner, side hustle, side gigs, and tax pros. If you're an enrolled agent, cpa, tax advisor. I'm excited to be here with you today to talk about five unique tax deductions even the tax pros may have not heard about. And I mean it. And these are legit and I think they could be very useful for a tax advisor that's going to see a lot of different clients and for you out there that are meeting with your tax advisor and trying to make more money. People, it's a lot of times easier to save money than it is to make money. Now I'm a cpa, an attorney, best selling author, podcaster. I produce so much content and so many blogs over the years and I love saving taxes, I love making money and they go hand in hand. So here today I want to answer your questions on favorite tax write offs you might have. And you're like wondering if that's outside the box or hey, how do I write this off? I, I want to hear from you. I'll be taking your questions here shortly. I also have a special bonus and a special discount of $500 on a program of mine you're going to want to hear about. So stay tuned. All right now, five unique tax strategies. These are fun and a lot of these, some of you might be able to take advantage of. Number one, you could write off your pet in one format or another. Now it is estimated over 60% of Americans either have a cat or a dog and that doesn't even count fish or birds, reptiles, exotic pets. There's a lot of pet owners in America. Well, I've got an article out there. If you just Google how to write off your pet 10 ways. I've got videos and articles on that, but I want to just share three or four here that are fun and they are legit. The first one is the guard dog. A lot of clients might have inventory at a warehouse, at their home, in a shop or garage or accessory dwelling unit and they need and can justify either a security system or a guard dog. Now I don't think you're going to be able to write off that little poodle or Chihuahua. This better be a serious guard dog to some degree. But, but this allows you to write off the food, bedding, boarding, veterinarian bills, any of the costs that could be associated with this pet. A guard dog, number two, a cat. There are case after case and even Disneyland has a fleet. I think it's estimated about 10 different cats around the Disneyland park to take care of. That's right, mice and rats. Cats are a wonderful one. Way to take care of varmints. Not good stuff. And so you can do the same. We've had clients that are like, hey, I've got a warehouse again or a commercial building and I need a cat on premises. There's better than any other pest control. Number three, advertising. This is a funny. Even Alice Cooper in his concerts was able to write off the bow constrictor and animals that could be at a ski shop, at the restaurant or. Or at the hotel. One of the fun ones, we were at a hotel skiing this last December and they had a resident beautiful like some sort of snow dog. Gosh, I can't remember the name. It was beautiful and it was just wander around the hotel the whole time. And it was a hotel expense to have this dog to create a more relaxed environment for their guests. And this happens all the times at little boutiques and shops with or there's an animal on the premises. Could be in the advertising or on the website. And number four, pet breeding, very common pet breeding. People are able to make money off their pet breeding them once or twice a year. That means you're in business now. You're claiming the revenue from that breeding operation, but you're also taking all the write offs for the pet bills, the shots, the food, the housing, all that good stuff. So if you're a pet owner and this doesn't even get into the medical uses of, of a emotional support animal, that could be a medical deduction as well. So there's lots and lots of options there. The working dog dogs on farms just love it. Okay, number two, you could write off your smartwatch, your Apple watch. I forgot my watch today. I was going to wear it for the show. But you could write off your Apple watch because it is not an analog piece of jewelry. It is a smartwatch that would operate much like a phone, an iPad or a laptop because you're getting texts, notifications, calendar items and it is there for business purposes. So this has been well established that you could write off a lot of different electronics from cameras to tripods to drones to lights to anything that you may need electronically, including a smartwatch to help you in your business. Now this is why I love this with the side hustles and the side giggers out there because you got to start thinking outside of the box of any type of tool, resource or expense you use to make money. That's a write off. It's legit. Number three, the entertainer or performer write off. Now, even Carol Burnett, a famous actress back in the 60s and 70s, even into the 80s. Some of you young people may not know her, but. But she had to go head to head with the IRS to write off costumes, makeup, hair and all those issues. Liberace, Elton John. There's all sorts of different cases of performers that had to go to the IRS and say, I am writing this off because I'm a performer. I wouldn't buy this costume or this outfit if it wasn't part of the show. Now why does that apply to you today? And you tax pros out there, how many clients do you have that are influencers? They're entertainers on YouTube now, isn't it? It's a different world. I mean, it used to be you got to be on stage or at a concert or one of the three big networks that meant you were an entertainer. Now there's entertainers on YouTube or TikTok or Instagram with millions of followers making millions of dollars. Don't even get me started on only fans. So those clothes, those makeup and hair and all those things are a write off. If you can show you're making revenue from your name, likeness and image, entertaining others, it's a legit write off. Well, speaking of some of those more exotic write offs, yes, it has been proven and it has been defended in IRS tax court. Breast implants for the exotic dancers. We're back to onlyfans and those. It is true that if plastic surgery is going to enhance your business and help you make money, whatever that plastic surgery is, and again, you're going to have to be able to prove that entertainer, type of influencer type role, you're going to be able to write off that plastic surgery. Now, the average person can't do that as a medical deduction and unless it's medically necessary. But again, if you can justify those extra silicone implants. So let's go for it. All right now, number five, this is fun. You want to write off your beer, your wine, your drinks. Oh, so many different ways. Dining is a write off. Many of you don't realize that includes the bar tab. When you're networking, doing business now you have to be able to show that you were getting contacts that resulted in a sale or ongoing relationship. I don't want you trying to write off your part every Friday or Saturday night. But dining with a client, a customer, a vendor, a business partner, an employee, that includes the meal, the valet, the parking, and the bar tab. Now, it's limited to 50% but I'm going to tell you how to write off 100% of that beer here in a moment. 50% of that dining and bar tab is a write off. If you're out doing business, keep a note on your tab of all the clients that you may have interacted with. My realtors are classic for this and I love them. They're such great communicators. They're out at dinner, networking on a Friday or Saturday night. They better be riding off that dining and the bar tab because they're getting clients to come by the open house on Saturday and Sunday. Now, 100% beer and wine. I have a client, runs a barber shop. When you walk in, hey, would you like a beer? The beer is complimentary for their customers. That's 100% write off. That's a cost of goods sold. They are providing a benefit to coming to the barbershop. It could be donuts, it could be snacks, and it could be a beer and bottle of water, soda, whatever. So that's 100% write off when you're handing out that beer to the customer. When they walk in was at a nail salon recently and they would do a glass of wine. So ladies would walk in and they go, oh, do you want a glass of red or a glass of white? Complimentary. All of that wine, 100% write off because it was for their customers as they came and frequented the establishment. So kind of some unique write offs. And I think we need to think about this also from a marketing standpoint. How cool we're trying to distinguish ourselves when we're marketing our businesses. When I get into an Uber, I'll tell you, freaking A. I wish I could find the same Uber that's going to give me a bottle of water, some mints, some gum. They have a little charger for me, it's not that hard sometimes. I have an Uber driver that can't even speak English, smells and doesn't say boo. I'm like, why in the hell am I giving this guy or gal a five star? Think outside the box. If you have a little star, a store or boutique, wouldn't it be nice to have a warm, fuzzy animal that when you walk in, they come up and lick and greet your customers in a friendly way? That could be a wonderful ambiance to create more people coming by the shop or the coffee shop or whatever it is. And then again, if you're having customers come by your shop, could you give them something when they come in? I've told hair salon owners for years that man, when your customer walks in you should know exactly their favorite soda drink or whatever it is and have it right there ready for them. You got an iPad of their last haircut showing them what it looked like. Is this what you want again so they don't have to re explain it. You know how many times I'm sick of a shop owner going did we use a number one or a number two on that clip razor? You know, how the hell am I supposed to know that's your job? Drives me nuts. Let's think outside of the box. Let's provide extra benefits. Let's think of what electronics in our world we could write off. And if you also have a pet, could it be a write off? I don't know. This is not unethical to think of tax write offs. The IRS code section 162 says any expense incurred in the production of income is a valid write off. Now it might be a percentage because you might have personal use of that asset. I've had a client that wrote off a snowmobile or a good chunk of it every year because they would go show properties on the ski mountain with their snowmobile in the winter. They also wrote off a chunk of their ski pass because it would take clients up on the ski lift and show them other properties that they couldn't get to with a snowmobile. Clients that write off four wheelers houseboats not for entertainment. Entertainment deduction was extinguished for lack of a better word about five years ago under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. But if we are using these different things to accomplish our business or job and it's not for entertainment, it can be a write off. So think about those and you tax pros. If you're a tax advisor, please click on the link below. I I've got a video on 5 Ways to Thrive after tax season. Tax season may have kicked your butt, but it doesn't have to be that way. What did you learn from tax season? What were your wins? How could you improve from this? And I've got a video to help you level up, scale up and be a tax advisor. Charge more for your time and find a win win relationship. Do you know how many people are watching this video that would love a tax advisor that speaks Mark Kohler that's outside of the box that wants to find great write offs that wants to help you succeed. Tax advisors. You don't have to take clients you don't want. Please click on that video down below and you will love it. It's going to be an incredible way to thrive after tax season. I also got a special for you here. Hang tight. Okay, now I want to take some of your questions. I want to see if there's something I could help you with and help you better live the American dream by saving taxes and using that saving to build wealth. Dylan, what do you got for me?

First question comes from Instagram and this is coming from Andrew. He asked if you can talk more about the historical or historic renovation tax Credits, the Section 8 credits, and any renewable energy credits for new construction.

That's the question you chose. You're fired. And those are tough ones. I'm not able to talk off the top of my head. They're excellent. I would say this. Out of 500 clients, I may have one that would use one of these renewable tax type credits, including the historic credit. I think I've only consulted with one client in the last 10 years that was able to use the historic building tax credit strategy. You're going to have to. Your facts and circumstances are going to drive that a lot. I've done conservation easements, I've done charitable trusts. We've. I've been going down deep this morning on a solar tax credit strategy with commercial buildings. But they're also unique. So I hope you do not hold me like liable for. Oh my gosh, Mark, you're a good CPA. You should know all this. No, I could quiz 10 CPAs. That'd be like, I got to look up that rule. And it's only going to be for very, very unique clients of mine. I am so sorry, I cannot talk about that credit. I wish I could. Dylan, next question.

Next question comes From Elena on YouTube and she asked what your opinions are about the A slat, the irrevocable trust that allows one spouse to gift assets to a trust.

Very unique situation. Again, I am not an irrevocable trust fan. They are going to be used for my 1% high, high, high net worth clients to try and save additional taxes or create very unique asset protection. They're also going to. That trust can be used in conjunction with a postnup or a prenup and some gifting strategies to avoid estate tax. So I think a little beyond the scope of today as well. I appreciate you guys bringing the questions. Holy crap. I'm going to actually pull those out of the description. I have a tax certification program where I meet with upwards of 200 CPAs twice a week and we collaborate and I do a training and we're diving deep on some of the most unique tax strategies. These two questions I've had in the last five minutes we haven't even covered in the last 18 months. Very, very unique. And if you are going down that path of using one of those, please get a second or third opinion of someone selling you on those. Just super unique. And I apologize again, I can't talk off the top of my head. Dylan. Next question.

Next question comes from YouTube. Ayeko. And I apologize if I'm pronouncing your name incorrectly, but they asked which online agency is good, they want to open an llc or they're asking if they should just talk to an attorney to set it up instead.

Great question. I think there's a lot of websites out there that will provide a great LLC package or a corporation package. The problem is, is not legalZoom being a good one. The problem is twofold, though. First, a lot of times they'll make it seem cheaper than it really is because you should be checking all the boxes. I need an operating agreement, I need an ein. I need membership certificates, I need a corporate book. I need all these different pieces and parts. But these services will go, oh, your articles and this and that are only 50 to $100. So don't get sucked into a service that really creates this discounted price for only really a fifth of what an LLC is all about. You need to have all those pieces and parts, people. The second problem is when you go online, you're going to get really template type documents that are generic. In our membership agreement and in our corporations that we do for our small business owners, I want to put the family on the board. I want to have accountable plan provisions in the minutes in order to write off home, office auto travel reimbursements for all sorts of expenses. The ability to expense certain pieces of equipment outside of depreciation or listed property. Now those are terms that Tax Pro is going to know. But be careful just going online and setting up any entity. Now, clients that have done a number of entities, they know what to look for, they know what they want. They have been through, they've been around the block multiple times. They could go online and maybe find a service for five to six or $700. We have a paralegal service at our law firm that's competitive with the online services. But getting a lawyer is going to allow them, allow you to ask questions, get it tailored to you. Our law Firm, we're around $1,200 and that includes a lawyer from start to finish and a paralegal helping you get it done right. If you're New to setting up an entity. I would really, really recommend you use a lawyer the first time. Dylan, can you make sure kkoslawyers.com is in the chat down below, that's www.kkoslawyers.com and use a lawyer the first go around and, and maybe on that second or third or fourth or fifth LLC or corporation, you can kind of do it yourself or get, in a sense get an online service to do it for you because you know where it goes and how, how to do it. At that point, I'm just going to enjoy another drink of my Rockstar. This is another one of my marketing techniques. Rockstar, I love you. And they even sent me my own little backpack of rock stars so I could like just open it up online and be there for you guys. Because I'm a, a rock star accountant. I'm trying to make it happen. So little shout out there, Dylan. Our next question.

Next question comes from a user on Instagram and they asked. I filed my taxes late and got my K1. Need help understanding how much I will owe?

Okay, if you, okay. If you have, you haven't filed your taxes late because you don't know how much you owe. So you may want to rephrase that. And if you just got your K1, that's okay. I, I'm still waiting for K1s until September. So 60% of my clients also extend. Extending happened just five days ago on April 15th, and that's okay. You actually reduce your chances of an audit. So if you say I got a K1 I haven't filed yet and I want to figure out how much I owe. Well, you got to just do your taxes. So I would recommend you get with someone in my tax pro network. If you go to markjkohler.com go to the network. I have probably 200 accountants around the country that speak Mark Kohler that can give you a quote for getting your tax returns done and then you're going to know what you owe. So I'll tell you. Most clients that are making between 50 to 150 grand, you're going to be in a 20% range and maybe 5% for state. If you just kind of think of that on your net income, 20% and 5%, that's going to give you a general ballpark of what the damage might be. But just get in and get your taxes done. That's what it's about. So. All right, next question.

Dylan, next question comes From Gabriel on YouTube and he asks, I have a Wisconsin LLC, but I currently live in Texas. The business is an online coaching business. Does it matter which state the LLC is registered in? No state income in Texas.

Yes, there's no state income tax in Texas. And the answer is hell yes it matters. Because here's the problem. If you're doing an online coaching business, that is ordinary income that is going to be subject to self employment tax, right? So if you make 100 grand as an online coach, you're going to pay self employment tax of 15%, that's $15,000. Then you're going to pay federal tax. Doesn't matter what's going on in the state. Now the way to save on that is to make an S election, become an S corporation. So you're going to take your LLC and turn it into an S corp. It's super expensive. We charge $200. Yes, it's that easy. Now you should make that retroactive to 1124. You're going to become an S corporation and in order to save, you're going to take that 100 grand you're making and you're going to say I'll take 40,000 as salary and 60,000 as K1. Now you're only paying the self employment tax or FICA on the 40,000 and you just save 15% on 60,000. That's $9,000. That's a big deal. So everybody that has out there online influencer, selling, product marketing, attorney, engineer, landscaper, hair salon, restaurant owner, if you're making more than 50 grand, you want to be looking at this S corporation and doing a split. So you only pay self employment tax on a portion of it. Now why does that matter if you're in Texas but your entity is in Wisconsin? Because to take a salary out of your S corp, it's a state process. You're working in Texas, your entity should be in Texas. You live in Texas, so your payroll has to be in Texas. So your Wisconsin entity needs to either be registered in Texas or you need to move it to Texas. Also, I don't want you to get sucked into Wisconsin taxes. They're going to be like, what the hell's going on? You have an entity here. Where the hell are you? Well, I live in Texas. Well, your entity's here. What's going on? You don't want to get sucked into that argument. You don't even want to have to go there, get the entity moved to Texas. Get a call with one of my lawyers, they'll help you out, get a mood very affordably and we'll save you some freaking Money. Next question, Dylan.

Next question comes From Brian on YouTube. He asks, hi, Mark, regarding section 179, auto deduction, if claimed in 2023, what happens if I'm attempting to do it again in 2024? Are there any issues of selling current auto and or adding an additional auto?

Yeah, there's a lot to talk about here. And by the way everybody, I promised I'm going to give away a $500 code to save on my tax pro certification program. And I've got business owners in this program. They're like, mark, I've saved double whatever I paid you just in taxes this year alone. And this is going to change your life for many years to come. So business owners, and especially you tax pros out there, I'm going to give you the code right after I answer this question. Auto. Every small business owner should be writing off freaking auto. I don't care if you're selling jeans on ebay and your underwear in your basement. You're going to have to get in the car and drive somewhere to the post office or to go to pick up more jeans to box up. That's a write off when you get in your car. So everybody should be writing off freaking auto. Now the question was what about depreciating the auto? Sometimes mileage is the best way to go. But if you're going to write off the vehicle with actual expenses, that's when depreciation comes in. I've got an article on this at mark j.kohler.com Every January I do an article on the new auto strategies for that year. They change every year. Now the question is, under depreciation you have a couple options. You can do the 179 or the bonus or a combination of the two. Now the combination of the two is where the money's at. You want to do 179+bonus. You can only do 179 in the year of acquisition. You're not going to be able to do more 179 on year two. Same with bonus. That's in the year you acquire the vehicle. It could be used, it could be new. You could have donated the vehicle to your business. But that's when the 179 and the bonus are used together. Next year you're going to just be doing standard depreciation. It's going to depend on the type of vehicle, the size of the vehicle, the weight of the vehicle. Super tricky if you're not an accountant and you've got autos to write off and you Might be buying more autos. Please use a certified tax advisor, people. I tell my advisors to tell you if they don't save you in taxes what you pay them, then they're not a good tax advisor. We should be saving you five or ten times whatever it costs to pay us. Some people are like, well, I don't wanna pay an accountant $500. So, you know, blah, blah, blah. They're gonna save you 1,500. Holy crap. Pull the stick out of your butt. I don't wanna step over a dollar to go pick up a nickel. Pay the dollar and save $5. I don't go to Home Depot to figure out how to do plumbing and jack up my house. I call a plumber. Now I go to Home Depot to do the easy stuff. But taxes are not easy. The tax code is this wide. Get over it. If you're pissed off about it, fine. Move to another country or own it and hire a real tax advisor. Frickin A. All right, now here's a bonus for any of you that want to get certified in tax strategy as a business owner, as a tax pro, here's the code. You go to markjkohler.com, look at the Tax Pro certification and use the code. Save 500. You take $500 off that. Now we have a payment plan option. And if you pay up front, you can save another $500. This is super cool. So get over to the link. It's down below. The code is save500. Lower caps. Caps, doesn't matter. Save 500. That'll get you $500 off. And people we're meeting twice a week and you're going to be networking with other accountants around the country saving thousands of freaking dollars. This is the crazy part. Everybody wants to go to the workshop where I'm going to walk on fire and rah rah, rah and high five and I'm going to make thousands. Why don't you go to the workshop where I'm going to high five and save thousands, learning how to freaking not pay so much in taxes. I have clients that pay 40% or more in taxes. What? Not anymore. Once it became a client, we brought it down. Bring it down, people. Save some fricking money. Next question. Dylan, real quick.

I just wanted to do a little shout out to Merritt Burnwood, who is a certified tax pro and she's on Instagram helping many individuals answer their questions right now as well.

Oh, Merit, I love you. One of our CPAs after dark. She's got a sweet YouTube channel. People get over there and check out Maritime and sign up for her YouTube subscribe. She's got great videos. All you have to do is type CPA after dark on YouTube. Marit, she's amazing and she's in there right now helping so many of you. And she's one of our 500 certified tax advisors around the country. And she wouldn't be answering those questions if she didn't know her shit. So people, get over there and Sign up for YouTube. Go ahead, Dylan.

Okay, next question comes from Jennifer John, and he asks, can I deduct a helicopter pilot training lesson for myself? I have various rental properties and could travel among them faster with the helicopter, but I need my pilot license first.

Well, riding off a helicopter or a plane is easy, especially when you use it to travel to your rental properties or in between your offices or to conferences or to meet customers or clients. I've owned a. Hell, I've owned a plane before, not a helicopter. It's on my bucket list. But I was able to ride off my plane before as a little beater. Please do not think it was a jet. And we very legitimate write off. Now, for you to write off the training to fly your own helicopter plane, that's going to be a different issue. It's almost like thinking, oh, can I write off my training to learn how to drive a car? No, but you can write off the car once you use it for business. Now, if you're going to get that training and fly other people around as a business, maybe a 135 operation, you'll know what I'm saying. Or you're part of an fbo, maybe you're going to go give lessons, you know what I'm saying? The training could be a write off, but it's got to be. The training's got to be part of a business of getting trained to use that training. Not to fly or drive your own car or your own plane or your own helicopter. But I love where you're going with this. The helicopter itself could be a write off and I'll recommend this and anybody. If you're going to go the helicopter or plane route, put it in a shared pool, let it be used for classes, let it be used for rental. And it's almost like you're Airbnb your plane or helicopter so that you can use it when you want to, but you're making cash flow on it. I've got a wonderful client shout out to Dan down in Miami. He's got a yacht and he rents out the yacht when he's not using it and then he can go use it and it's, he's making money and paying it off at the same time. So use these types of vehicles to make money and to create benefits for your business. Next question, Dylan.

Next question comes from Valerie and she asked how do I confirm if one can convert 401k to self directed IRA? My husband turned 59 and will be 59 and a half soon. He's still with with that company with the 401k, by the way, first name again? Valerie.

Valerie, you were so close and me giving you a high five and all these wonderful opportunities. But the death knell on your question was that your husband is still employed. It doesn't matter what age he is. Well, I will say if he's fully vested in it of an age where he could roll it out to an ira, that's what you're going to want to call your administrator at his HR department at his company and go, is he vested? Could he roll out a portion of that to his ira? They may let him roll out his contributions, but not the company matches. They may let him roll out the earnings, but not this or that. Call the HR department at the company. But that's the first step because he's still employed. Any of you still employed, you can only invest your 401k in what they give you the choices to do. And so you can't go out and roll it over to Directed ira, our trust company, and go buy real estate or crypto or do notes or a syndication until you leave the job. Then you're going to roll it to an IRA and you can self direct the hell out of it. You could roll it into your own solo 401k in your small business all day long. But he's still employed. So call the HR department, see if there's any portion of that that's vested. And don't ask him about self directing. Just say can I roll out any of this to an ira? And if they go oh yeah, this piece, open up a self directed ira@directedira.com, roll that amount over and you're buying whatever the hell you want. Love it. Valerie, couple more questions. Dylan?

Yeah, of course. Next question is from Z hay Style on Instagram and they asked, can you talk about the best ways people can track getting paid in crypto and if it's possible to write off any losses?

Okay, two part question first two words, Coin Ledger. I love Coin Ledger. They're great software. They're for the consumer Level Coin Ledger will help you upload all of your wallets, DeFi, MetaMask, Phantom, Crypto.com, everything. So get it in there to Coin Ledger and let them do the reports. Now, it's not as simple as you think and the reports they kick out are not going to be. They're still going to need to be massaged and handled by your accountant. They're going to go on a schedule D as in David, we have a whole in our certified tax program, we have a whole module just on cryptocurrency. The metaverse, NFTs, crypto mining, staking. We get it. But for those of you that are trading in the crypto space, you're going to use Coin Ledger to get the record of your transactions for last year. And by the way, all of you, the first question on the 1040, the first question, and I wouldn't even say putting your name and social in there as a question, the first question is, did you have any transactions in cryptocurrency? Buying, selling, receiving, gifting. I won't read the whole sentence. It's basically, did you do any crypto last year? Yes or no? Penalties of perjury go to jail if you lie. You can't just say no. If you're going to say yes and you're like, I don't know what to do, hire an advisor on my program that knows crypto. Go to Coin Ledger, get your transactions. Now, second part of the question, are you going to be able to deduct losses? Hell yeah. You can deduct losses on your trades, just like you can deduct losses on trading your Schwab account. Not a big deal. Coin Ledger is going to give you your long term capital gains, your short term capital gains, your long term losses, your short term losses. Now you're not going to be able to write off your car because that's not a business, it's investing. You don't get to write off investment expenses, but you're going to be able to write off your gains and losses. Absolutely. By the way, oh, I need to say we have a crypto tax summit coming up in September. Make sure you're subscribed to my newsletter, you're subscribed to my YouTube channel and listening every week. We'll have be launching that website shortly for the crypto tax summit. It's going to be in Southern California September 21st. Dylan, next question. Two more. I'm having so much fun. Maybe it's the rock star today. It's a great year by the way if you want to save 500 bucks and get certified and save freaking $20,000 in taxes, holy hell, get over there to my website, sign up, save 500, and there's a great video there for all of you that are tax pros. Five steps to thrive after tax season. Get over there. You're going to love it. It's free video. I go through some steps that are going to blow your mind.

Question From Kevin on YouTube. He asked, Can I claim cost segregation accelerated depreciation on STR that was rented for only the last weekend of 2023?

Can you do it, Kevin? Sure, but you might want to buckle up for a lot of, you know, an audit. All right, everybody, what Kevin is saying. STR means short term rental, AKA Airbnb. Vrbo. So Kevin onboarded an Airbnb last year, got it ready to rent, and rented it one weekend. Kevin, here's the problem. In order to qualify, yes, you can do cost segregation. Take a big kick ass write off. I love the short term rental strategy. I've got videos on it and articles and all those good things. By the way, in my certification we have a whole module on real estate from short term rentals, long term rentals, self rentals, real estate, professional opportunity zones, ten 31s, cost seg, the whole nine yards. All right, here's the problem, Kevin. In order to qualify for the short term rental loophole, you've got to show that you had renters, which you did with an average stay of less than seven days. Well, you say, well, Mark, they only stayed two days. It was a weekend. Well, how can you have an average if you only have one renter? We recommend you at least have two or three renters in the last week of the year. Now you have an average. You can't have an average with one stay. Kind of doesn't work in the math column. You could go for it and you could very well do fine, but you might have to defend the fact that you didn't have an average stay because you only had one stay. I'm a freaking go getter though. I'd probably take it, Kevin, but you better get with an advisor that believes in you and believes in that strategy. You do not want to do this on your own.

Next question comes From Nathan on YouTube and he asked, if I start a business after this year's tax day, do I just wait to file for the business's taxes for next year's tax?

Okay, everybody, tax day. Great question. Tax day. In our, in my world as a tax professional, there's multiple tax days. Here's my calendar you can get on my website, the Mark J. Kohler trifecta Calendar. I've got all the dates of the critical dates you need to know throughout the year. Now, I know you're talking about April 15, but there's also September 15, October 15, July 31, January 31. There's so many deadlines that are important for tax reporting. Here's the important thing we're reporting right now for what happened in 2023. That's water under the bridge. It's gone. Any tax day this year is simply a deadline to report what the hell happened last year. What you're doing this year could have started on January 2, April 17, July 4, whatever. I mean, you could be starting a business anytime this year. January to February to March to April, June. And then you're going to report it next year by the appropriate deadline, which might be April 15th. So don't worry about this year's tax reporting day when it comes to your business that started this year. By the way, speaking of side hustles, one of my favorites, my son Dylan, on 4th of July, he and his buddy, for a couple years, they go buy wholesale hundreds of sunglasses, and then they'd walk around like cigarette girls with a little tray, and they'd walk around the parades and all the festivities on 4th of July and sell sunglasses to people that left them at home or didn't have one, and they made a killing. And I just loved it. People, this is the beauty of the American dream. If you've got a plan and you got an idea and you can sell a product or a service, freaking make it happen. By the way, I've got a new podcast titled the One Page Business Plan. Oh, it was one of my favorite podcasts in a long time. It just went live today. Get over to Main Street Business Podcast and listen to it. It is huge, super powerful. Do it. All right, Dylan, last question, last question.

Softball. Hector from Facebook asked, is there any of your 500 certified tax pros in Oregon or Washington?

Hell, yeah. I got certified advisors in Oregon, Washington. But, Hector, I don't care. I don't care. Do you know my personal accountant is in Texas, and I haven't even been to his office. Hold it. Did you hear that right? You said Mark Kohler. Hold it. You're. You're. You're the goat. You're the certified tax advisor of all time. And. And you have an accountant. Yes. We all need brain on brain. Me preparing my own tax return. Could I do it? For sure. But I want someone to look at it. I want someone to make sure I'm not missing anything. And I don't care if they're in Florida, Maine, Alaska, Texas, California or Washington. It doesn't matter. Hector, you just want someone that knows you, that can get on Zoom, that can get on a call, that can get on an email, answer your questions, build your plan and help you. Your accountant doesn't have to be in your state. Your accountant doesn't have to be in your freaking town. They don't have to be in this country. One of my best certified advisors, Carter Cofield, he's in Columbia. He joined our training today from Columbia and he helps thousands of clients all over the country just find someone that's freaking good at what they do and hire them. Hector, get over there on this tax pro network. You'll love it. All right, everybody, Tax Pros got a good video down there for you. How to thrive after tax season. Get that benefit of save 500. I promise you, all of you, when you do your certified tax advisor program, which is a write off for your business, that's a write off. I am going to save you more in taxes than you ever pay me, and I promise that. And if you're a tax pro and you're wanting to build a business, I'll bring you clients and I don't take a piece of it. You can be on my tax pro network if you want. Go get certified and show up, people. The American dream is real. Don't give up. Work hard. It takes time. It takes patience. It's not easy, but you can control your destiny. And I love all of you that have a day job and a side hustle. Do it, do it. It's wonderful combination. All right, I'll see you next week. Hang in there.