December is the most popular month of the year to do tax planning. Small business owners and landlords who have had a strong year or years may be looking to shelter extra profits from taxation by putting new business assets into production or replacing old ones with section 179 expensing expiring in 2011. If investors or retirees have had an investment windfall they could be looking at the tax planning benefits of gifting to charity and family members. And, this is typically the type of tax planning tips that writers look to write about this time of year

After taking care of any year end moves to make for 2011, the smartest small business owners, investors, landlords and retirees are planning out their taxes for 2012. They understand that tax planning is like farming. What you plant the year before is the crop you will live off of throughout the next year. You may think of the harvest as dividends.

I usually give the example when I talk to a business group or do a live webinar, “If you didn’t know you could deduct your kid’s braces in April of next year for the previous year, there is nothing that can be done to change that. Your money is lost by that time and 4 months of tax savings has already been lost for that year also.”

Smart business owners, landlords, investors and retirees will be receiving dividends from doing December 2011 tax planning in every month of 2012. While end of the year tax planning is well covered in the media, it is the next year’s tax planning that keeps the tax savings coming in for 2012.

Unfortunately, for a very large portion of the tax paying public, they just think about getting their taxes done instead of planning their taxes. This is also known as tax preparation or having your taxes prepared. Some taxpayers may also think of this as tax accounting. This can lead to small business owners, landlords, investors and retirees to over pay their taxes by thousands and even tens of thousands of dollars in a single year.

Taxpayers run their small businesses, rent their houses and apartments and make buying and selling decisions without knowing how muxh they will have to pay in taxes because of their decisions. Quite often an end of the year purchase that a small business owner thinks he can buy on a pre-tax basis turns out not to be that way due to the Alternative Minimum Tax which can affect things like accelerated depreciation.  The pinch of realizing you are going to shell out more to the IRS than you were expecting is their first realization that there might be a better way.

If your small business has been strong for 2011, your vacancies have been at a minimum or your capital gains are at or near harvest, it might still be good to do some tax planning in 2011. With the right tax plan, you could be looking forward to a more profitable 2012 with the peace of mind knowing you won’t be over-paying your taxes. If you think you might not be paying the least amount of taxes as you should, contact me for a 20 minute conversation to see what can be done. The dividends you keep, will be yours.

Recently I was interviewed by expert real estate investor and mentor Laura Al Amery about tax planning for real estate investors, property flippers and landlords. Listen along below as Laura asks and I answer her following questions:

• What types of records should real estate investors keep if they either wholesale properties, or buy and hold?
• When should an investor use an LLC vs. a corporation?
• Does it make a difference if a real estate investor is taxed as a sole proprietor?
• When can a real estate investor pay capital gains taxes vs. income taxes?
• Can 1040 Wealth Designs, LLC work with real estate investors in all 50 states?

Laura has been a real estate investor for many years and mentors investors getting involved in the real estate investing market for the first time, and also those looking to expand their deal and finance creativity. For those interested, you can find more about Laura’s services by clicking here and checking out her real estate mentorship website.

World stock markets have continued on their 2011 roller coaster ride. Stock markets seem to be pre-occupied with the Euro zone melt down, and for good reason. It is center stage on nightly newscasts and every financial news channel in the cable universe. So much of tax planning has to do with capital gains tax planning, but unfortunately over the course of the last decade it has had more to do with capital loss tax planning. This year seems to be handing out more in the latter category than the previous.

I mentioned to a client in the spring that I thought the stock market was over valued and due for a correction. He agreed with me that it would be better to sell and buy back at a lower price than to hold his stocks through another market downturn. Unfortunately for him, he did not act on this advice.

While the Euro zone debt crisis has been the driving force behind market volatility in the second half of the year, I think it could pale in comparison to what’s next. There is so much scrutiny of the Euro zone crisis, which is enough to ensure the continuation of the on going recession. But why there is coverage of Occupy Wall Street and bogus allegations of sexual misconduct by Presidential candidates being so thoroughly covered is just plain sad.

Unfortunately, what is not being given the prominence it should be getting by media outlets is going to make the Euro zone volatility seem calm in comparison to what is coming. Israel is going to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities. This is going to have dramatic repercussions on world stock markets. This will cause Iran to try to cut off the Strait of Hormuz, choking off the world’s largest oil supply.

This has the potential to draw just about every military in the world into a conflict. Oil could hit it’s high of $147 a barrel or even higher. We have been in a recession since 2008, but this could cement depression status.

The most surprising aspect about the turn of events is that the stock market seems oblivious. The stock market is historically a predictor of future returns or so the experts would have you believe. Clearly, the stock market and it’s experts can be blind sided by events. There were not a lot of economists who predicted the meltdown caused by the collapse of the mortgage market.

Israel striking Iran is blatantly obvious. This has been telegraphed in interviews with Israeli prime ministers for years. Iran’s president, Ahmadinejad, has made no bones about wanting to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. The International Atomic Energy Agency released it’s latest report on the Iranian nuclear program stating it is much further advanced then expected and it is definitely geared towards producing nuclear warheads capable of not only striking Israel but also Europe. This has guaranteed military action from Israel. The only question left unanswered is when.

Since this is going to happen, what will you do with your investments? What is your investment advisor’s plan for dealing with this scenario of events? Are you going to make money or get run over like a deer in the headlights?

So on the week-a-versary of the U.S. Credit Rating Downgrade by Standard & Poor’s, it looks like investors are acting even more irrationally then before the downgrade. The yield on 3-month U.S. Treasury Bills is 0.01%. The 12 month T-Bill is a whopping 0.10%. This is the exact opposite of what many had predicted while arguing about raising the debt ceiling. However, gold has easily added another $100 an ounce in value as expected from a US credit downgrade. Silver, which had been on a parabolic rise earlier in the year and then sold off, has not had any appreciable move up or down.

The stock market as measured by the Standard & Poor’s 500 index or Dow Jones Industrial Average has sold off as expected and looks even more precarious than before. This is not a big shock and is the obvious source of why US treasuries are yielding next to nothing. Combined with the fact that the European Union is coming apart at the seems, it is no surprise that investors are seeking safety. Unfortunately, the one asset investors have historically turned to for safety in times of panic has been downgraded.

Some of the largest figures in the investment world have struggled and will continue to struggle under this new paradigm of investing. Investment titans such as Warren Buffett and Bill Gross have been struggling to get or hold onto positive returns. More and more baby boomers are facing the prospect of retiring with not enough savings. Professional money managers struggles and failures have driven a self managed marketplace that makes buying and selling decisions on technical models, emotion and ignorance of economic fundamentals.

In a lot of ways, this new paradigm is much the way it was over a century ago when people did not rely on the Federal Government or any of its guarantees in the marketplace. When the Federal Government is charged with tasks that really were not set out from the original charter of the US Constitution, such as creating secondary mortgage markets or even worse carbon credit markets, it will fail and all of the citizens will pay the price. For those that relied most heavily on such a system, the pain will be felt the greatest.

For those who are not fearful, there may not be a better time to invest. It is obvious markets are anything but rational or efficient. The increased volatility brings more risk, but may bring the savvy, cool headed, tactical asset allocator an extra windfall. Those still investing in diversification and long time horizons, also known as buy and hope strategies, will lag behind in returns or experience asset destruction.  This can be especially devastating to a retirement portfolio too heavily invested in stocks and bonds.

U.S. Bonds and bills are perhaps the riskiest of all investments. None of the rhetoric coming out of Russia, China or other developing countries has had much impact on the value of U.S. debt, but at these price levels and low interest rates it couldn’t be a better time for a foreign sovereign nation to diversify out of U.S. Treasuries.  The rating agencies still rate corporate debt AAA along with some very enticing developing and developed foreign countries. These safe havens will be a safer investment and better yielding place to keep a portfolio’s powder dry.

No matter what the markets may bring or the investments you hold onto to build your financial security, I am there to help my clients with prudent investment discipline, and of course, the best tax planning, so you can keep your hard earned capital gains and retirement income.

So, as the debt limit negotiations turn inside the beltway known as Washington D.C., taxes seem to be an even hotter topic than usual. Will President Obama and the Democrats get their way and force even more onerous taxes on the wealthy? (They already pay ninety percent of the nation’s tax bill.) Or, will Speaker Boehner be forced by the tea party presence inside the Republican party to hold the line on personal income tax rates? Only time and a fake default will tell. Either way, it keeps the job of tax planning alive with possibilities.

One of the more attention grabbing plans touted over the course of the last week came from Senator Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican. The plan he proposes would cut $9 trillion from the Federal Budget over the next  ten years. Now, that is some savings, but I think I might have a problem with how some of those savings may be achieved.

Sen. Coburn is described as a fiscal conservative which is how I usually describe myself, and that is really about all I have in common with any Republican. I also must admit I know very little of the details of Sen. Coburn’s plan. The source of information for this post comes from The Washington Times article which you can find here. The article talks about some of the more frivolous business tax deductions that are either part of the tax code or have been allowed by various tax courts around the country. This article chose to point out whaling ship captain deductions, office holiday parties, feeding stray cats, body oil and breast implants as being frivolous.

Whaling has been banned in the U.S. for sometime, but certain Eskimo tribes are allowed to harvest whales from the arctic ocean as part of their native way of life. Apparently, since 2005 such whaling ship captains are allowed to take up to $10,000 of expenses for fuel and weapons as a charitable deduction. This is really not going to be a big revenue raiser for the Treasury if a handful of Eskimo tribes lose this deduction. They are not charging the other villagers for the meat in the first place. Seems like a charitable donation to me. Pick on someone else.

The article points out that businesses can deduct the cost of “recreational, social or similar activities” for low paid employees and therefore the cost of office holiday parties. I don’t know if this was specifically pointed out by the Senator or not, but any reporter should know that when the newspaper is footing the bill for their holiday party, that the newspaper is deducting it as a legitimate business expense. Even the food and entertainment that can be apportioned to the not so low wage employee is deductible.

The feeding of stray cats by the junkyard owners as a business expense just to keep rodents away doesn’t seem legit to me. If you are feeding the cats food, why do they have to catch rats? I think the tax court messed up on that one. But surely body oil for professional body builders and breast implants for exotic dancers are certainly legit deductions.

However, I believe the tax court did get it wrong when they assigned the breast implants a five year depreciation life. Breast implants are clearly a non-categorized asset and should be depreciated over a seven year life span along with all the other non-categorized assets. Kind of makes you wonder how Chesty Love, the exotic dancer who won the case on appeal, choreographed that one with the appellate judges.

No matter what happens with the debt limit negotiations, be it the raising of taxes or elimination of deductions that will be employed in paying off Washington’s unconstitutional spending habits, I will be looking for ways to make sure my clients will not be paying a dime more than necessary. Let me know what you think.

Sometime around May 16 the Federal government will hit its debt ceiling. I say hitting the debt ceiling and not raising it could be the best possible thing that could ever happen to this country. It is the most rational step that could possibly be taken towards fixing Washington DC.

Most politicians and their so called experts say this would be something akin to suicide. The government would lose its “AAA” credit rating. Who are they kidding? Nothing could be further from the truth. The U.S. having a “AAA” credit rating is a scam.

Weiss Research has already given U.S. debt a “C” rating. Sure, Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and AM Best still give the U.S. their top credit rating. Of course, they also were giving mortgage backed bonds, CDO’s, CDS’s and so on “AAA” credit ratings up until the day they started being defaulted on.

Another argument given by the Washington-Wall Street cartel is that the U.S. would default on their debt and interest rates would rise causing further constraints on the budget. Once again, who are they kidding? If the supply of U.S. debt is shut off, how could interest rates possibly rise? Interest rates would plummet.

The government would simply print/digitize the money to pay its obligations.There would be a huge supply of money and not enough new government debt being issued to soak up the supply. What would investors and banks do? Call me crazy but it would stand to reason that they, the banks and investors, may be forced to loan or invest that money to private businesses. How crazy is that? The money that Washington says is not being loaned and invested into the private sector to grow the economy would finally be loaned and invested in the private sector to make the economy grow.

This does not come without a certain amount of pain. Markets will be anything but rational if this actually occurs. After all, the markets have been used to living off of government induced manipulations for a hundred years or more. And, the citizenry of the US would still have to deal with the shenanigans of the Federal Reserve until it can be dismantled.

There would be a lot of pain in Washington. Congress would have to trim their congressional staff. Instead of relying on others to do their research and work for them, they would have to do it themselves.

Could you imagine if members of Congress had to not only read the bills themselves but also write them? Some of them might quit at the prospect of facing an honest days work. Don’t let the door hit you in the derrier on the way out. And, since money is kind of tight, Congress person, you only qualify for the same amount of pension as any other Federal employee for serving a similar amount of time.

And and and, don’t even think about not paying the soldiers. The nation’s common defense is clearly the only unquestionable duty every elected member of Congress and the President are constitutionally responsible for. To not pay the military their wages would be a violation of your oath of office and an impeachable offense.

In the end, not raising the debt ceiling is the only rational step that can be taken to fix the Washington-Wall Street cartel from further en-slaving the citizens of the United States. Look at what these clowns and scam artists are trying to get us to believe. Over extending the government further is going to sustain the government’s credit worthiness and improve the economy!

Pigs just can’t fly that far.

It’s March Madness, and the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is in full gear. It seems like half of America has joined a pool, whether they play it safe with #1 seeds or try to guess the upsets. Even President Obama has joined the fun. In fact, he’s doing pretty well, going 10 for 16 on Sweet Sixteen picks, ranking at the 99%th percentile on ESPN.com, and leading a pool of lawmakers collected by online reporters at TheHill.com.

If you win your local pool, and pocket a nice prize for your picks, you might find yourself with an unexpected partner in success. That’s right, the IRS will certainly want their share. But what happens if you lose? Will Uncle Sam be there to ease the sting?

If you place bets with a bookie, in Las Vegas or elsewhere, you generally “lay 11 to win 10.” The bookie collects a 10% commission, or “vigorish,” for their service. As long as they attract an equal amount of action on each side of a game, they guarantee to come out ahead no matter who wins.

The IRS isn’t quite so fortunate. But they still come out ahead with a tax code version of “heads we win, tails we don’t lose.” Here’s how it works:

• If you win, you report your winnings as taxable income on Form 1040, Line 21. All of them.
• If you lose, you can deduct your losses as a miscellaneous itemized deduction on Schedule A, Line 28. Gambling losses aren’t subject to the usual 2% floor of adjusted gross income. But, you can do it only if you itemize deductions. That knocks out about 2/3rds of all taxpayers right there. And you can only deduct them up to whatever winnings you report.

The final score is this: if you win, Uncle Sam is happy to help you celebrate. But if you lose, you lose alone!

The IRS is all about making it easier for you to report your income, and gambling winnings are no exception. Generally, if you win $600 or more at the track, $1,200 at the slots or bingo, or $1,500 or more at keno, the payer has to issue a W2-G reporting your good fortune — and withhold 25% of the loot! And poker tournament sponsors now have to report players’ winnings over $5,000.

Reporting losses is a bit harder — the IRS requires you to keep “an accurate diary or similar record” containing at least the following information: the date and type of specific wager, the name and address or location of the gambling establishment, the names of other persons present with you at the gambling establishment, and the amount(s) you won or lost. Ouch! (Yes, you can deduct what you paid to enter your pool — and fortunately, you don’t have to tell the IRS if you picked Princeton to win it all!)

We talk a lot on this blog about tax planning. And obviously, when you make a bet or enter a pool, you don’t plan to lose. But just because you don’t plan it doesn’t mean we can’t help you with it. So remember to call us with all your tax questions, and good luck with your picks!

Taking advantage of the Domestic Production Activity Deduction (DPAD) is smart tax planning. However, it is a very complex calculation and business accounting systems are not usually set up to track Domestic Production Gross Receipts and Domestic Production Activity Income. This post is provided as a starting point for the business owner(s) to help discern whether their business may qualify for this valuable deduction.  

If your business produces Qualified Production Property then it is quite possible your business can qualify to claim the deduction. Qualified Production Property is manufactured, produced, grown or extracted by the taxpayer in whole or in significant part within the United States. It is tangible personal property, computer software, sound and film or video recordings that do not contain sexually explicit conduct.

Since the last three items on the list are fairly self explanatory that leaves the question of, ‘what types of businesses produce tangible personal property?’ First, it should be explained that unlike most other parts of the tax world, tangible personal property includes real property, but not land, therefore, houses, buildings and other structures. Specifically mentioned as qualifying are engineering and architectural services. While this also includes any business involved in the construction of real property, it does not include such businesses that only perform cosmetic work such as painting.

Excluded businesses are businesses involved in the sale of food and beverages prepared by the taxpayer at a retail establishment, the transmission or distribution of utilities or the lease, rental, license, sale, exchange, or other disposition of land. However, businesses involved in the production of electricity, natural gas, or potable water (collectively, utilities) are included. So, for instance, the business that extracts natural gas is included, but the utility company that pipes the gas to your home is not.

The DPAD can mean valuable extra cash flow to the right business. There are parameters that limit the amount of the deduction but it can be as much as nine percent of a business’ payroll for 2010, 2011 and beyond. It was worth three percent in the case of taxable years beginning in 2005 or 2006, and six percent in the case of taxable years beginning in 2007, 2008 or 2009.

If you believe your business may qualify or should have qualified for this deduction, contact 1040 Wealth Designs, LLC. We will provide a free analysis of your last three years’ tax returns and search for those valuable deductions, such as DPAD, that are often overlooked.

I am truly saddened by the senseless murder of the citizens of Arizona being killed alongside the shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. The actions of some mentally disturbed individual should never be a reason for government or the press to limit it’s citizens god given freedoms.

To do so would work to only empower more such acts of violence by the same.

This blog post is going to be more of a commentary on the economic outlook than it is about tax planning. Tax planning is after all about the smart use of your money, a primary business asset, and how best to deploy it to grow your business. Sometimes that business might be the asset you, the business owner, would like to sell in order to retire someday. But most of us know we cannot work forever, so we more than likely are saving and investing for retirement. No matter your situation, it is always better to sell when there is a good economy.

In assessing the economic outlook for the next year to two years, I am going to focus on three recent headline phenomena. First is the complaint from politicians and their Keynesian economic brethren that corporations are holding too much cash on their balance sheets. Second is the rise in raw commodity prices ranging from cotton to gold. And last is the recent data that is pouring in about holiday consumer spending and retail sales.

It is hard to believe given the recent crisis of 2008 that any corporate CFO is not trying to build cash reserves. If you were to look at the number and size of the non-financial corporations that had to take advantage of the Federal Reserve’s Troubled Asset Lending Facility, also known as TALF, to continue in business, it is no wonder why corporations are building reserves. It makes one wonder why presidential advisors have jobs when you look at the comments made to the Huffington Post by these advisors in the article, “Obama To Meet With 20 Top CEOs: See Who Made The List”.

Cash on the balance sheet is always invested. If corporations took it out of the banks or U.S. treasuries, it would cause either a banking crisis or higher interest bills on the national debt. Cash on the balance sheet is not a pile of paper money sitting on the floor in some storage room doing no one any good. It does represent safety and peace of mind for CEOs and stockholders.

Next on the list is the rise in commodity prices. Let’s break this into three basic components: food, energy and materials or metals. Grain prices are higher in large part due to poor harvests in most regions of the world except the U.S. Production and therefore supply is lower and emerging market economies continue to grow and demand more food.

Energy prices and mainly crude oil has seen steady demand with emerging markets consuming more and the U.S. consuming less. Coupled with quantitative easing on both sides of the Atlantic, high energy prices look as if they are here to stay. The same can be said of precious metals.

The last item has been the celebratory mood of the press in reporting increased holiday sales and how that is a big boost to the economic recovery. There is no shortage of stock market forecasters on the business channels increasing their growth forecasts for U.S. Gross Domestic Product for 2011 because of this buying anomaly.

There is one huge problem with thinking increased holiday sales are helping the U.S. economy and I am going to lead you to the answer with the following questions: How many U.S.- made products did you buy or receive this holiday season? Of all the gifts bought and received these holidays through out the country, what percentage do you think were made in the good old U.S. of A.?

It kind of makes you want to hold cash doesn’t it? Or, even better, silver and gold.

Truly no one likes to lay off or fire employees. If an employee has been working for you for a long time it is even harder. If they are new and just not working out it’s not so bad. You might even be doing them a favor if they are young. Not everyone is meant for sales or marketing or tax planning or well, you get the point.

Over the last couple of years the scenario of down sizing has been faced by too many small business owners because of the weak economy. They have had to let go long-time, trusted and productive employees. So it is not hard to see why it was easy for a small business owner in Florida to gain a lot of press for laying herself off from her business when she had to let go several employees after having lost a large client.

I first saw this story on Fox News (much to the dismay of Howard Dean, I really do appreciate well fabricated news) over the weekend and it was re-run last night on the local Fox station here in St. Louis. My family was sitting down to dinner and after having the ritualistic argument with my 7 year old daughter over turning off the kid shows and switching on Channel 2 this story popped up once again.

My wife, seeing this story for the first time, was astonished that this altruisitic small business owner would give up her income to save her employee’s jobs. I had to respond that it was really a brilliant tax move on top of a great way to gain publicity for your business.

This comment of course brought one of those glances that said I had to be pulling her leg. Since my wife is in public relations I knew the look was not about the PR apsects of the owner disclosing her own firing.

So, I simply said that it was a brilliant way to remove all of your income from your business as passive income and completely avoid payroll taxes on the money a business owner receives from their business. My wife promptly called me a “tax geek” to which I agreed.

Now, I am not by any means recommending to any small business owner that they should fire themselves from their business. I have never recommended this strategy to a tax planning client and would like to say for the record that I cannot say this strategy has passed or will pass IRS scrutiny. It is certainly a creative approach to avoiding payroll taxes, and if it does pass IRS scrutiny, you can be sure to hear about it here.

I think this video from YouTube is a great follow up to my previous blog post about quantitative easing.

Am I insane for talking about the Alternative Minimum Tax when there is so much debate about extending the Bush tax cuts? Well, the tax cut drama will probably play itself out this year or next and I believe President Obama will get something in return for extending the tax cuts whether it occurs this year or next.

So let’s talk about the AMT and what it represents. When tax planning is done it is done with the AMT in mind. Actually it can be argued that tax planning is alternative minimum tax planning, and yet most taxpayers don’t even know what it is. I reviewed a small business owner’s tax return this year and he was completely unaware that he had been paying AMT.

The AMT is really quite a brutal tax to get hit with. But why is there an AMT drama every year, year after year? If there wasn’t such a strong debate about extending the Bush tax cuts, the drama over the AMT fix would be in the headlines. So, I am waging a one man crusade to bring the AMT back into the tax limelight.

Perhaps more pertinent questions are, Why does Washington have to have an AMT debate every year? Why must there be a tax that needs to be fixed year after year? Have we not elected smart enough lawmakers to fix the AMT permanently?

A permanent AMT fix is really not very hard to draft. Every tax bracket out there is indexed to inflation. Is there a reason why the AMT can not be indexed to inflation?

This would be a great question to ask any candidate running for Congress or the Senate, “How do you permanently fix the AMT?” If that candidate is not smart enough to know how to fix the AMT permanently should that person really be holding public office?

Someone please stop the insanity. While I am on the topic of insanity, I would like to bring up one more item that disturbs me twice a year for about a week or so, and that is the switching from daylight savings time to standard time. Just move the clock a half hour and leave it alone!

Last Wednesday, Nov. 3, the Federal Reserve announced it would be implementing a new round of quantitative easing to the tune of $600 billion. Most people do not even understand what quantitive easing is, much less what it will do to their purchasing power, retirement savings or job security.

Quantitative easing means “the printing of money” and it always causes inflation. No amount of tax planning can keep a taxpayer from paying this bill. Inflation is a hidden tax. It is the most regressive of all taxes since those who earn a limited income do not have the means to hedge themselves against inflation.

Why is Ben Bernanke and his Federal board members doing this then? Frustration is the word that most comes to mind. Economics is a theoretical science that is really more akin to psychology than mathematics. Unfortunately for everyone involved, there doesn’t seem to be a grown up involved who knows this.

The U.S. is a market-based economy. Businesses and people trade their goods and services for economic gain. The U.S. government gets its money to provide services to its people from this trade. When a business owner cannot predict major factors such as how much their tax bill is going to be or how much the currency they are paid in is going to be worth, it slows down the pace of business.

We had a major election just last week and the voting public clearly sent the message to Washington that it did not like the changes elected representatives have been making and wanted it to stop. The results were that more than 60 of these “supposed representatives” lost their jobs.

Being in business is an incredibly risky proposition. Circumstances change and businesses react. There is enough change in a stable economy for plenty of businesses to fail and succeed. When politicians, or in the case of the Federal Reserve, political appointees, decide it is time to change the rules our economy contracts with the corresponding increase in the unknown. It makes sense.

This new round of quantitative easing is exactly what voters do not want. It is not what business wants and it will cause our economy to contract further causing more social unrest. It would be wise for voters to talk with their representatives about restricting the powers of the Federal Reserve, or even better, eliminating the Federal Reserve all together.

Why do business owners and retirees both hate paying taxes so much? Both groups of taxpayers have to write the check to pay their taxes to the IRS and State. 

Have you been working your whole life and saving for retirement just so you could pay taxes?  Did you start your business just so you could pay taxes? Did you feel excited when you earned your very first paycheck at your very first job and got to see how much you got to pay towards taxes? Of Course Not!

Good for you! You are truly a red blooded patriot from the USA. There is really only one common feeling that binds us as Americans and that is the common loathing of paying taxes. It is why the founding fathers declared independence. The income tax being the most hated tax of them all.

So why do we Americans hate the income tax so much? Most taxpayers hate the income tax most because we don’t like the idea of being punished for being successful. Success is what makes our economy grow and raises all of our standards of living.

Why be successful if the fruits of your labor are just going to be taken from you? We live in a democratically elected republic. Tuesday Nov. 2nd is election day. Tax planning is a right. No matter what the outcome of these elections 1040 Wealth Designs, LLC will be here to help you plan to pay the least amount of tax as legally possible. Go Vote!